Taps: Norman C. Dupuis

 If it is not right do not do it;
if it is not true do not say it 
--Meditations,
Marcus Aurelius

Integrity is not a conditional word.
It doesn't blow in the wind or change
with the weather.
It is your inner image of yourself,
and if you look in there and see
a man who won't cheat,
then you know he never will.
Integrity is not a search for the rewards of integrity.
Maybe all you ever get for it
is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide.
It is not supposed to be a productive asset
--John D. MacDonald
_________________

Lisa reads the obituaries, and she noticed an associate of Ranger's in the Taps section of last month's Purple Heart magazine, Norman Charles Dupuis.

It is poignant to learn of his death now, after Ranger's recent piece on his disillusionment following his poor Officer Efficiency Report. You see, as an enlisted man who had received a direct commission, Captain Dupuis had a distinct view of soldiering which manifested in one of Ranger's fonder memories regarding the OER process.

Ranger first met Captain Dupuis (pron., "Doo-pus") when he was assigned the dubious distinction of training this young soldier newly-assigned to B53/5th Special Forces (Abn) to be his replacement, as Norm was being rotated into the S-3 (Operations Officer) job.

Ranger learned much from this sober man with a wry sense of humor who did not threaten easily. This was evidenced when our Camp Commander threatened to ding people on their OERs if they dared go a scintilla awry.

Norm replied, as only a Sergeant Major in receipt of a direct commission could: "The only way an OER could hurt me is if you rolled it up and stuck it in my eye."

Another example of Norm's direct humor followed a torturous staff meeting run by a tedious officer with a preternatural faith in charts. Norman stated, "What we really need now is a chart to show how many times we've used the other charts."

RangerAgainstWar has written previously about a fight on 22 Jan 71 outside of Camp Lang Thanh in Vietnam that led to numerous U.S. deaths. Ranger believes that failure would not have occurred if Cpt. Dupuis had been the S-3 on that day. Norm was always calm and cool, and he probably would have been more deliberate before launching the ad-hoc reaction team on their ill-fated mission. He might have hewn more closely to troop-leading procedures, and lives might have been saved.

Though we were only business associates, Ranger has always remembered Norman Dupuis fondly. He was an exceptional example of soldierly rectitude.

Tact and Judgement

It is galling enough to commit acts of stupidity,
but it is even more galling
to commit them uselessly
--Absent Without Leave, Heinrich Boll

The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
Born of the sun, they traveled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honor
--I Think Continually of Those,
Stephen Spender

Part of our eighty-seven billion dollar budget
provided for us to have some secondary armor
on put on top of our thin-skinned Humvees.

This armor is made in Iraq, and it's high quality
... metal ... and it will probably slow down the shrapnel
so that it stays in your body
instead of going clean through.
And that's about it!
--Gunner Palace (2004), SPC Stuart Wilf
_________________

Several thoughts have popped up like targets on a rifle range after revisiting April 1970 HERE; let us watch our lane and direct our fire accordingly.

Back in those days Ranger's Officer Efficiency Reports (OERs) always dinged him in the "tact" and "judgment" area (some things never change.) But he always wondered, "What need has an Infantryman of tact?" Simply put, they fuck up things and people to the Nth degree -- including themselves -- so how does that behavior relate to tact? We were not in training to become U Thant, after all.

Onto "judgment", another confessed area of weakness. In addition to his choice of Infantry, there were other choices along the way that hinted at Ranger's deficit, straddling both the personal and professional arenas. But what about the judgement of a nation that continues to allow its soldiers to die from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in stupid encounters that benefit no one or nothing, beyond the pockets of the war profiteers?

First Lieutenant Mabee was killed by a buried roadside bomb 10 April 70, and 42 years hence our soldiers continue to be laid low by similar explosive devices. We give the tools new names, like IEDs, but the reality is the same: The U.S. strides into an impoverished region and the locals use every nasty bit of discarded metal they can to rip through the flesh of the perceived invaders. Nothing new under the sun.

In Vietnam our Mechanized Infantry and Armored Cavalry Troopers used 114's which were nothing but "armored" personnel carriers with a 1-inch thick aluminum exoskeleton. A .50 calibre round would penetrate the armor skin, and a booby-trapped 105 or 155 round would rip the vehicle like a discarded beer can.

So in Iraq and Afghanistan we up-armored Humvees in a re-play of 1970, but doing nothing to actually save soldier's lives. This is how our soldiers died for the judgement of a President.

What does judgement mean to an Infantry leader? Does it mean assaulting a bunker complex defended by dug-in machine guns with interlocking fires? What man with judgement would order such an assault; yet that is par for the course for an Infantryman following orders from superiors.

Bill Weis, college friend of Doug Mabee about whom we wrote yesterday, today kindly shared the terminal paper which he gives his graduating business classes called, "Reflections on Reality". In it, he refers to the documentary on former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara as “The Fog of Arrogance," lamenting McNamara's inability to achieve clarity on his errors:

An old man who once led our country into a senseless and gruesome war exhibits just how vacuous we can sometimes remain, despite the benefits of age and hindsight. Lightly tossing about abstract clichés like “I’ve made many mistakes –we all have” illuminates a personal reality blinded by self-importance, arrogance and a delusion of infallibility – a reality that still cannot name one of those “many mistakes” that cost so many so much.

Acknowledgement of error is the first step to making reparations. Absent that awareness, the hope for making amends is nil.

Ranger lacks tact and his judgement often flapped in the breeze, but he calls the same down on the national leaders with infinitely more power who signed off on such hopeless operations.