[Seascamp]

I?m not sure Douglas got the Medal of Honor but his Pa did. The Author William Manchester (The WWII ?Raggedy-assed Marine?) wrote the book ?The American Cesar? where the life and times of Douglas MacArthur are delineated. After reading that book and several other accounts I came away with the impression that Gen. MacArthur was a real handful and ambitious well beyond the narrow confines of a mere five stars on his color tabs. My thought is that he was quite happy to be the defacto ?Emperor? of Japan during the occupation/reconstruction period.

During the pacific campaign of WWII he was at Adm. King and Adm. Nimitz hammer and tongs the entire time and is probably the only Army Gen. to have a USN Pacific fleet all his own. My guess is that he was given a fleet just to shut him up, get him out of their hair and get on with war, LOL. But at the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay we see who conducted the ceremony. However, in fact, it was the USN and the USMC that did the majority of heavy lifting during the WW II Pacific Campaign with the US Army providing distinguished and vital service as well. Given the image of Tokyo Bay, one would get the impression that the Gen did all that by his only. Hmmmm

No doubt the Gen. had moxie, stroke, friends in very high places and a genius level mental capacity to go with it. But I have to say, he would have much rather had a gold laurel wreath and a satin kaki toga than a slouch hat and a corncob pipe. Not to diminish any of his accomplishments in any way, but he was vein glorious in the best tradition of British Royal Navy Adm. Horatio Nelson and a few more that could be named.

In retrospect and up to current times, I cant help but notice that there have been no more General Officers or Admirals like MacArthur and I seriously doubt there ever will be. There is no lack of talent or ego available, it?s just my sense of it that no US Military Officer is ever going to get that level of stroke, influence and permissible arrogance ever again, ever. Maybe that all comes under the title of lessons learned, maybe, who knows. Maybe there is a saga of supposed American blue-bloods that would be King.

Scamp