Ukraine

By Richard Wolfgramm

Lanesboro, MN

I am a War Baby, born in 1946, among the first of the “Boomer” generation.  I was raised a good Lutheran boy in Elm Grove, Wis., a small town not unlike Lanesboro today.

Even though I was a war-baby, I had no clue what war was until the ripe old age of 10, when I learned that my barber was a Hungarian refugee who fought in his country’s revolution for independence from Russia in 1956.  He managed to bring his family to America.

But before that, there was the Korean conflict, a war that I learned about in junior high.  Then there was the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1961.  By 1962 we were heavily involved in Vietnam, a war that I fought in as a combat infantry officer (Det. A-101, 5th SFGA).  I know what war looks like.  I know what war sounds like.  I know what war smells like.  As the war finally ended in 1975, I could not imagine even more wars.  But then there was the war in Kuwait, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan.  And as 20 years of war in Afghanistan finally and abruptly came to a close, a war has broken out in Ukraine !!  The forever wars.

Let me be clear.  These wars take an enormous toll on the military, as evidenced by the fact that 22 veterans and active duty personnel commit suicide every day.  Every day.

Over the years, our politicians, our presidents and our generals have made huge blunders.  I was hopeful, maybe naive, or just plain tired of it all.  I was hopeful that our troops could come home for an extended period of time.  The biggest mistake that our politicians, our presidents, and our generals have made is that they have failed to identify the mission before racing off to war.  What was the mission in Vietnam?  Nation building in a Buddhist country?  What was our mission in Afghanistan?  Nation building in a Muslim country?  Explain that to a G.I.

A friend of mine was eager to ask me: “How do you reconcile the uselessness of war, once you’ve seen it and done it?”  The answer is that the cold war with Russia has clearly turned hot.  The mission in Eastern Europe involves not just Ukraine, but also Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, and Romania.  The mission is crystal clear – to liberate the oppressed – and there is a coalition of nations in NATO and the EU that are united to defeat aggression by any means possible, short of direct military confrontation with Russia.

Our military is not only stretched thin but also stressed by an enormous transition from fighting in a desert climate in Southeast Asia to suddenly supporting an ally in an eastern European winter climate.  The training and the equipment and the culture are totally different than previous deployments.  At least the mission is clear.  Pray for success and for peace.