Peg Mullen & The General
Norman Schwarzkopv passed away yesterday. We all know him as the larger than life General who commanded Desert Storm, the successful effort to remove Iraq from Kuwait in 1991. I will always remember him for his turn of phrase reworking of the term BS..."Bovine Scatology"...now, that is the stuff speakers (and writers) only dream of inventing. Well, OK, maybe he stole it from the unknown...that's OK, I do it all the time!
I was raised in the military and served for 3 years in the USMC. Like "Stormin Norman" I served in Vietnam, Thus, I didn't describe him as "larger than life" lightly. Military officers don't automatically impress me, altho I do realize the difficulties, both in terms of merit and politics, involved in getting that star on your collar. Many yearn, few are fulfilled. But Senator McCain's dad, a Navy Admiral, drank beer and played poker at our kitchen table...and like my Dad, he drank too many...not helpful at a poker game...LOL!
Schwarzkopf not only achieved those stars, he met up with the dream shared with most officers...the command of a war. He not only executed his plan well, he sold himself even better. Folks don't reach that level in any profession without an ability to both bully and schmooze, and Schwarzkopf did both flawlessly as he had most of his career: indeed, it was his genetic predisposition... his father was the Commander of the New Jersey State Police, known for his belligerence and public relations. But when Stormin Norman ran into an otherwise ordinary woman, Peg Mullen, that persona was stopped in its tracks....she wasn't buying!
Peg was an "ordinary" Iowa farm wife, the mother of Michael Mullen who died in Vietnam in 1970. Schwarzkopf was his Battalion Commander and a Lieutenant Colonel at the time. He sent off the obligatory form letter and forgot about it. Peg Mullen, hearing stories from others Michael served with, realized that the events as described in that letter were the aforementioned bovine scatology and she proceeded to terrorize the Army brass and Schwarzkopv in particular to find the truth. Her quest led to an award winning portrayal of her by Carole Burnett in the 1979 TV movie "Friendly Fire"....that was followed by her 1995 memoir, titled with attitude..."Unfriendly Fire" reviewed here:
Michael was not killed by enemy fire, but by a stupid and common mistake. Artillery shells fired over their position had not allowed for a tree line overhead...the shrapnel & debris resultant killed Michael and 2 others. It is a command mistake....the guy on the ground who supplies the "coordinates" and the "Fire Direction" officer....both ignored that tree line tho it was clearly delineated on the maps we used to mark targets. How do I know? I spent 20 months doing exactly that job....a forward observer for artillery, air strikes, even Naval guns occasionally. The built in redundancy of 2 responsible folks, officers or not, in different places, giving the "Fire" command was either ignored or both couldn't read an effen map....it's that simple.
But the Army bureaucracy couldn't admit that...and Schwarzkopf tried to cool the fires in Peg Mullen during numerous meetings....no way....Mission Fail! Peg rips "Stormin Norman" into an asshole in her memoir, and Schwarzkopv, in his book, described those meetings as among the most difficult assignments of his career.
So Norm...you might be waiting for your meeting with St. Peter...I assume that will go well. But inside those golden gates I imagine an Iowa farm wife is waiting...still waiting for, as Joe Friday says, "just the facts"...Time to come clean!
May Norman Schwarzkopv, Peg and Michael Mullen RIP...may their families find peace...may we all.
