Dean's Address

Military Heroes

Military history is replete with heroes.  I never think of General George Patton as the original Patton; I think of George C. Scott.  George C. Scott breathed life into Patton and cleaned him up better than the record.  There is a vast reservoir of heroic military figures: Genghis Kahn, Roland, Napoleon, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, MacArthur. Admiral Chester Nimitz is a Texas and U.S. military hero. The Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg, Texas, west of Austin, is a beautiful museum and illustrates what tremendous, real-life heroes we had in World War II. Another hero is General Jonathan Wainwright, who marched 55 miles with 70,000 other American prisoners of war in the “Bataan Death March” in the Philippines. Only 55,000 of them made it to the prison. The photograph of him in Life magazine may be the most poignant war photograph of all time. Anybody who recalls the vision of General Wainwright when they finished the march remembers how frail and tired he was. He was barely alive.

Do any of you remember Ruby Bradley? On the February 23, 2000, edition of the NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw talked about the forgotten heroes of the military, including Ruby Bradley. She was a Major in the United States Army and is the most decorated woman in American military history. She was an army nurse and served our country in World War II and the Korean War. Major Bradley received 34 medals and citations, including two bronze stars for bravery. She spent 37 months in a Japanese prison, losing 80 pounds because she saved most of her food for the children in the prison. She also smuggled in medical supplies for the sick. Ruby Bradley is still alive, lives in West Virginia, and is now 93 years old. Major Bradley is but one of many true, existing heroes whom most of us have never heard of or just do not remember.

There is another war hero you have not heard of, my Uncle Bud from Edna, Texas. He was a tall handsome man, about 6’3”, and a cattleman from South Texas. Ruth Ann thinks of him as very handsome and a much better dancer than me.  He was in World War II and went over the hump in Burma. I was probably the only school kid who knew what “the hump” was, because Uncle Bud would talk about it every now and then to me. In my mind, there is no question that my Uncle Bud won World War II in that Burma campaign.

Many people compare sporting events with military battles, and the sports world has many of its own heroes, such as Babe Ruth, Tom Landry, and Darrell Royal, who is the epitome of integrity. Coach Royal was “assisted” in becoming a hero by his anti-hero, Barry Switzer. Also Coach Cliff Gustafson, the winningest coach in NCAA baseball history, is a hero to all who follow University of Texas sports. Coach Gustafson is soft-spoken, had never been thrown out of a game, and is the ultimate example of integrity, skill, guidance, and humble confidence.

Trailblazers

Colonel Charles Goodnight, born in 1836, is a heroic figure in my part of the world. He was the first white settler in the Panhandle of Texas, which includes expansive and rough canyon country. He did not try to subdue the Comanche Indians who lived there and ruled the Panhandle. Instead, he befriended and ultimately earned the respect of the Comanche Indians. He created the first and the largest cattle ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon area. In fact, it was at one time one of the largest ranches in the world. I know quite a lot about Colonel Goodnight, because I went to the small rural school in Goodnight, Texas, named for him. Goodnight School was so small that my older brother, David, graduated as valedictorian, salutatorian, and the only graduate of his class.

Even though we know of these famous and not-so-famous heroes, many are without real recognition for their contributions. That will change for at least one hero, Sacajawea, a Shoshoni American Indian. Until recently, I remembered her name only from history class in school, and all I knew about her was that she accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition from the Northern Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean and back from 1804 through 1806.

Sacajawea was 16 years of age and nearly 9 months pregnant when she was hired with her husband, a French-Canadian tracker, as a guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition. She had her baby just before they left on their trip up the Missouri across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean and all the way back. The journey took two years and four months. Lewis and Clark’s expedition was one of the most recorded of all explorer travels, and from their journals we know that she was a most respected and valuable person on the trip. The journals provide details not only of the heroic things she did, but also of every time that she or her son, John Baptiste, was sick. The journals make clear that all of the explorers held her in high regard.

Sacajawea’s great value on that trip, however, was much more than accompanying them, keeping the explorers on the right path, taking the right river, and knowing which roots and berries were edible. Her greatest contribution came when the expedition arrived at the majestic Rocky Mountains going west. They could not go any further in their boats, and they needed horses. The great horsemen in that country were the Shoshoni tribe from whom Sacajawea had been kidnapped as a child. She was able to interpret, negotiate, and purchase horses for Lewis and Clark for the trip over those mountains. Had it not been for her, they might have only made it to the mountains and back. Her presence also restrained the Indian tribes of the Midwest from attacking the explorers. The Indians reasoned that if these intruders had a Shoshoni woman with them who wanted to be there and was not a captive, then there was no threat. Her heroism knew no boundaries.

Sacajawea is becoming better known to us now and receiving new recognition because a modern hero has stepped in, Ms. Glenna Goodacre. Glenna’s husband, Mike Smith, is a fellow in the Academy. Ms. Goodacre grew up in and gained her initial fame in Lubbock, Texas. She now has a studio in Sante Fe, New Mexico, and was the designer of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. Glenna is one of the 22 artists and sculptors in America chosen by the Department of Treasury to vie for the design of the “golden dollar.” When the Mint reviewed all of the presentations, the top two winners were designs by Glenna Goodacre. The mint chose a design with Sacajawea and her baby for the obverse side of the coin. The Mint has plans to strike a limited number of the coins in .999 pure gold.

Statesmen

Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are statesmen who deserve the designation of hero. My 12 year-old grandson, John, advised me to include Teddy Roosevelt as a hero. Many others were on my list, but he argued for Mr. Roosevelt, saying “Teddy Roosevelt was the first great leader to institute affirmative efforts to conserve our natural resources” (such as Yellowstone National Park). He was the first to realize the significance of identifying and preserving our national resources by legislation and presidential order. I told John that I thought of Roosevelt as a hero because of the Panama Canal. Teddy Roosevelt is a real hero also in the judicial field because of his success in breaking the economic stranglehold of giant corporations, including Standard Oil, through litigation.

Then, there are the modern-day heroes from South Africa. If you have not read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, you need to. It should be on the required list for anyone concerned about liberty and justice. It gives one an insight into what was really happening in South Africa while we received the official line from our “news” source, the CIA. Mandela’s personal lawyer and friend George Bizos, who was also inducted into the Academy in South Africa, is a hero of the greatest historical proportions. He and his father escaped when the Nazis took over Greece. They slipped out of the country in a rowboat at night and went to South Africa where they were free for a while. But, when things began to change there as well, George Bizos became a lawyer and represented more citizens who were persecuted and prosecuted for treason than any lawyer in history. He was not a popular man amongst those in power during the Apartheid years. George Bizos’s compassion, resourcefulness, resoluteness, and sheer ability to fight successfully against the oppression of the South African government make him a true hero.

Next - Advocates