SFTT DefenseWatch – July 3, 2002

Table of Contents

Hack's Target for the Week:
No Bad Units, Only Bad Leaders

Special Report: A Wartime July 4th

From the Editor: From Landed Gentry to an Unmarked Grave
Article 01 - Don't Tread on Me: Two Years That Changed the World, by Patrick Hayes
Article 02 - A 'Wicked Infidel' and Inspiring Commander, by Andrea West
Article 03 - A Nation Born in a Crucible of War, by Carmela Sibley
Article 04 - What We're Fighting For, by Robert G. Williscroft
Article 05 - Guest Column: A Mother's Letter to America
Article 06 - For the Record: July 4 Messages from the SecDef and Chairman JCS
Article 07 - For the Record: The Declaration of Independence

Other Columns:
Article 08 - Judges' Assault on the Pledge Will Not Stand, by J. David Galland
Article 09 - Guest Column: Military Absentee Voting Progress, by Samuel F. Wright

Medal of Honor:
Article 10 - 1st Lt. Arthur MacArthur and Gen. Douglas MacArthur

EDITOR'S NOTE: Your Support is Important!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Feedback Wanted
EDITOR'S NOTE: Article Submission Procedures/Subject Editors Sought
GLOSSARY OF MILITARY ACRONYMS
HACK BOOK SALES

Table of Contents

Hack's Target For The Week:

No Bad Units, Only Bad Leaders

By David H. Hackworth

The 10th Mountain Division sure isn't the same tough outfit I saw in Northern Italy at the end of World War II or the squared-away unit I spent time with during the bad days in Somalia in 1991 or the liberation of Haiti in 1994.

The 10th troopers still wear the Mountain tab - indicating they're mountain-trained - which the men of the division sported so proudly in Italy when they were a superbly conditioned outfit fighting on one of the hardest U.S. battlefields of World War II.

"We don't do mountains anymore," a division sergeant told me - which the out-of-shape battalions that fought during Op Anaconda proved in spades.

"We saved their butts during Anaconda with close air support while they stumbled around with 100-pound rucks, wheezing from the altitude, sucking up guerrilla mortar fire like magnets," says a Special Forces warrior. "No wonder the Brit Marines were sent in. And then the 10th returns home, gets a parade and 170 medals for coming under mortar attack?"

"Give me one (Special Forces) 'A' Team, and I could destroy a whole damned infantry battalion in this sorry division with one arm tied behind my back," says a division captain who served serious enlisted time in Army Special Forces. "The 10th Mountain was a great unit back when, but it's been slowly destroyed over the years by leaders who are more concerned about haircuts than hard training."

"This is my first experience with a light-infantry division," says a division captain. "I'm in awe at how poorly trained these troops are. In my two years here, we haven't done any mountain training even though there are world-class training areas right nearby in Vermont. We don't go out in the winter except to do PT, and in the summer the National Guard uses most of our training areas. Our big deal is to go out twice a year for two weeks and train up for the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk (Louisiana). All our training is geared toward passing the test there. No deviations, no special situations, just the same old canned stuff we always do. It's like having a copy of the exam and just memorizing that."

"After a recent battalion 5-mile run," according to a 10th soldier, "seventy-five soldiers fell out - including my 1st Sergeant." He added that his unit has a history of substance abuse and AWOL problems and that "morale is in the toilet" because heavy doses of political correctness and peacekeeping have dulled the division's combat readiness. "We've done peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and the Sinai until we're blue in the face. This combined with operations in Afghanistan has left only 30 percent of the division at Fort Drum (New York)."

Another problem is that junior leaders are promoted too fast. "The Army says they're short junior NCOs," reports an old vet. "They're promoting when eligible, not when ready, and now we have the unqualified leading the untrained."

"After 9/11 the top brass were going nuts trying to figure a way to get us into Afghanistan," says a division major. "We finally sent one reinforced infantry battalion. A brigade commander told me, 'This is all about getting our boys in the game.' Meaning this was a way to get that critical combat efficiency report and as many glory medals and goodies as the careerists could grab."

Before their boots hit the ground in Central Asia, this lead battalion was joined by the "entire division staff and one entire brigade staff," a senior sergeant says. "Never before have so few been so supervised by so many. The ratio of shooters to staffers was amazing, and when they came back most were wearing combat patches and badges."

When candidate George W. Bush was running for the presidency, he publicly stated that the 10th was not combat-ready. The kinder and gentler folks who were then running and ruining our armed forces ate him alive.

"There's a series of issues that have caused this division to hit the skids," says a division leader. "Many of these problems are infecting the entire Army, not just the 10th. There are great guys here in the trenches that are doing the right thing. All they need is some old-fashioned senior leadership."

http://www.hackworth.com is the address of David Hackworth's home page. Send mail to P.O. Box 11179, Greenwich, CT 06831. Look for his new book, "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts," (Rugged Land LLC, New York City).

Table of Contents

Special Report: A Wartime July 4th

FROM THE EDITOR:

From Landed Gentry to an Unmarked Grave

By Ed Offley

He was born in 1738 into the land-owning gentry of planters and traders who dominated colonial Virginia's rural economy and political system. Yet Thomas Nelson Jr. of Yorktown would die 51 years later so deeply in debt that his sons were forced to bury him secretly in an unmarked grave so that his creditors could not seize his remains as collateral for their unpaid loans.

It was no mere crop failure, business collapse or natural disaster that brought Nelson down. It was his conscious decision that American freedom was more important than his own personal gain.

Confronted by an intolerable system of British imperial edicts that American colonists perceived as a political and economic tyranny that threatened their very existence as a people, Nelson was typical of the small group of leaders who gambled their lives, pocketbooks and futures to win American independence and set the young nation on its course to become the modern United States.

The nation observes the July 4 holiday this week locked in conflict with a 21st-century terrorist network dedicated to the murder of Americans and the physical destruction of American society - and the devolution of the world to a form of Medievalism that is the antithesis of freedom. It is appropriate this week to remember that this is not the first time we as a nation have been confronted by hard choices between freedom and security, and between self-interest and the national welfare.

The generation of Americans who came of age in the 1760s and 1770s faced an equally daunting challenge, as Thomas Nelson's own experience attests.

The eldest son of a wealthy planter and trader whose family had turned Yorktown into the second-largest seaport in the Old Dominion, Nelson at the age of 14 was already earmarked by his family to carry on its legacy of leadership. He was sent to England for education at the elite Eaton school, and later graduated from Cambridge University, returning to Virginia in 1761 at the age of 22.

Even while still aboard the sailing ship enroute to Yorktown, his family engineered his election from York County to the colonial House of Burgesses. The following year, he married Lucy Grymes, the daughter of another landed gentry, receiving from his father, William Nelson, the marriage gift of a landed estate. They would raise a family of 11 children. His plantations covered thousands of acres of lush farmland, and his personal wealth ranked him in the top handful of powerful families who directed the affairs of their colony under the suspicious eyes of the British royal governor in Williamsburg.

Like most colonists who later rose in rebellion against King George III, Nelson's transition from gentry to rebel began with the infamous 1765 Stamp Act passed by Parliament in London that assigned a tax on every official document created in the colonies. (The colonists' fury over the tax was that it was imposed by the British government with input from the Americans it affected, sparking the slogan, "No taxation without representation.")

Soon thereafter Nelson, like many other prominent colonists, joined the Virginia Convention (a precursor of the Continental Congress) and offered the first formal proposal to create an independent Virginia militia. This little-remembered legislative ploy is recognized by most historians as Virginia's first major turning point away from compromise and toward outright revolution against the British Empire.

The following year, Nelson became one of Virginia's seven delegates to the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence authored by his friend and fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. As the history, The Centennial Book of the Signers, Nelson was proud to have signed because of his particular background:

Many colonial-era Americans, even of high social status, failed to leave detailed personal histories, diaries or correspondence for future study, and Nelson was one of them. However, the physical and mental strains he suffered during the seven years of the American Revolution are well known to historians. In 1777, while continuing to serve in Congress in Philadelphia, Nelson was stricken "with a disease of the head, probably of a paralytic nature," and was forced to return home and resign his seat.

When he recovered his health, Nelson in 1778 would receive a more important appointment: commander of the Virginia militia. In addition to leading the volunteer force in several engagements, Nelson himself advanced money to supply and arm his soldiers. When the Congress appealed to men of financial substance in the colonies to form troops of light cavalry, Nelson, at his own expense, raised and trained a unit.

But by early 1781, Virginia was in dire straits. Attacked several times by powerful British raiding parties led by turncoat Gen. Benedict Arnold, the colony was economically bankrupt and its leadership scattered in to the western foothills when then-Gov. Thomas Jefferson's term came to an end and the legislature elected Nelson to succeed him on June 12, 1781. Within several days of his appointment, Nelson and the rest of the state government were forced to flee again, from Charlottesville to Staunton, when British Col. Banastre Tarleton led a surprise cavalry raid deep into Virginia seeking to capture them and decapitate Virginia's leadership.

But the tide was about to turn, and Nelson would play a major role. A combined Franco-American army consisting of French troops under the Compte de Rochambeau and Gen. George Washington marched south from New York state into Virginia in an attempt to intercept Gen. Lord Cornwallis as his British force marched north from Charleston, S.C.

As commander of the Virginia Militia, about one-third of the American troops under Washington, Nelson marched down the Virginia Peninsula through deserted Williamsburg to join the siege of the British force at Yorktown, his home town and family seat.

He was a brigadier general commanding soldiers many of whom wore rags as uniforms and muskets paid out of his own dwindling fortune, and the stress of simultaneously managing a bankrupt state government and organizing a final military blow against Cornwallis, apparently caused a relapse in his health. Historians note that Nelson vanished from sight for two weeks in the summer of 1781, presumably because of his illness.

By September, Nelson was forced as governor to make emergency decrees for arming and provisioning his soldiers that exceeded the formal limits of his power, a step that would come back to haunt him later. But by the middle of that month, it scarcely mattered: He left Richmond for the last time and joined Washington, Rochambeau and the Marquis de Lafayette at the siege camp outside of Yorktown.

On Sept. 27, 1781, the allies with a combined force of 16,000 troops moved into position, digging trenches and laying artillery in a semi-circle around the town, and on Oct. 9, a combined artillery force of 52 cannons opened fire, forcing the 7,200 British and Hessian defenders to take to ground.

One of the more fascinating incidents in the Yorktown battle concerned a stately, two-story brick mansion that dominated the town skyline - then and now. When word came to Gen. Washington that Cornwallis had moved his headquarters into the house, Nelson reportedly recommended to his commanding general that the allies bring heavy artillery fire upon the new target. As one history recounted, the two men held a brief conversation:

"Whose house is that?" Washington asked.

"Sir, it is my house," Nelson replied.

Ten days after the firing began, Cornwallis surrendered his army to the allies, and the Revolutionary War fighting came to an end (formally concluding with the Treaty of Paris nearly two years later in 1783).

Victory did not bring a return to prosperity and contentment to Nelson and his family. In fact, it brought economic ruin as the debts he had co-signed or sponsored to fit and feed the Virginia militia - including one personal note for $2 million - came due. To add insult to injury, Nelson's political enemies in 1782 accused him as governor of impressing supplies for the revolutionary Army without constitutional authority. After an ailing Nelson personally pleaded that his acts were from "the necessities of war," the legislature formally indemnified him of any liability - and failed to compensate him for the personal fortune he had spent arming his men.

But in one of the few direct statements on record, Nelson later responded to a friend who asked if the effort had been worthwhile, "I would do it all over again."

His health failing, Nelson and his family retired to a small family farm in central Virginia, where he died at the age of 51 on Jan. 4, 1789.

One of the few things that Nelson proudly kept in his later years was the memory of this praise from George Washington, his military commander at Yorktown:

A physical reminder of Nelson's dedication and sacrifice to win his nation freedom, can be seen today at his restored family home in Yorktown, where several cannon balls still lodge in the brick exterior 221 years after the siege. Of course, the greater symbol of Nelson's commitment rests in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where the original Declaration of Independence carries his signature and that of 55 other men who pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" for American freedom.

Ed Offley, Editor of DefenseWatch, is the 5th great-grandson of Thomas Nelson Jr. of Yorktown. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.

On April 19, 1775, the village of Lexington in the Massachusetts-Bay Colony awoke to the cry, "The British are coming!" Minutemen from almost every home prepared for battle and ran to the common. By the time a misty dawn was breaking, 70 men stood in line, muskets at the ready - steadied by the words of their leader, Captain John Parker, who ordered, "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have war, let it begin here."

Over 800 British soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith marched onto the common behind the Lexington meetinghouse, where he ordered the American Minutemen to lay down their weapons and disperse. They stood their ground. A shot rang out that was heard around the world, each side later claming that the other had fired first. A musket volley quickly followed from the British lines, killing eight Americans, including Parker, and wounding a number of others.

The short but bloody engagement at Lexington opened a war that the British thought they could bring a rapid conclusion, and one a good number of American colonists thought they could not win.

However, after two years of fighting, in the spring of 1777, the British Army under Gen. Sir William Howe believed that the only way to defeat the rebels was to march on their capitol in Philadelphia. This, he believed, would force the rebel commander, Gen. George Washington, to move in defense of the city, thereby giving the British an opportunity to defeat the rebel army in a decisive battle.

At the time of the American Revolution, the British Army was the epitome of discipline and was virtually undefeated on the battlefield. Given the wide swath of the war in the colonies, what the British commanders seemed to lack were viable communications and coordinated planning between various units. Howe himself soon committed a major blunder because of this.

While Howe planned to march on Philadelphia from New York, some time earlier, he had also shown interest in a plan proposed by Lt. Gen. Sir John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, who suggested he could advance down the Hudson River from Canada and meet Howe in Albany, N.Y.

Howe was anxious to begin his plan of attack against Philadelphia - so much so that he actually committed two major errors: First, he failed to advise Burgoyne of his intentions and second, refused to await approval from the Secretary of the Colonies, Lord George Germain in London.

Also, a primary element of Burgoyne's plan had called for the two British armies to meet at Albany, which was in the opposite direction to Howe's line of march from New York to Philadelphia.

At the end of June 1777, Burgoyne started out down Lake Chaplain with over 7,000 British regulars, 250 Canadian and American loyalists and about 500 Indian warriors. Once past the lake, however, Burgoyne's troops found the going difficult without horses, wagons and carriages. In addition, his troops seemed unprepared for the march, suffering in their heavy wool coats and loaded down with equipment.

With a massed army of professional soldiers in their British red coats and Hessian blue, Burgoyne believed he would persuade many American loyalists to flock to his side. Instead, when the colonists saw the British marching with the Indians, many ran to join the colonial militias. The situation was inflamed when some of Burgoyne's Indians attacked, murdered and scalped 26-year-old Jane McCrea, the fiancé of a loyalist lieutenant in Burgoyne's own command.

By July 1, Burgoyne's troops had reached Fort Ticonderoga, held by 2,500 American soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, a former British army officer who had settled in Pennsylvania before joining the Continental Army. When St. Clair saw the size of the British force, he withdrew from Ticonderoga and retreated to Ford Edward, some 50 miles south. When word of the fall of Ticonderoga reached England, it is said King George III shouted, "I have beat them, I have beat all the Americans!" Lord Germain also announced the capture of the fort in Parliament as a major accomplishment towards the end of the revolt in the colonies.

Burgoyne could have continued along the Hudson River to Fort George, but was persuaded by local loyalist Phillip Skene to cut a road through the woods - yet another error for "Gentleman Johnny's" redcoats and German mercenaries. Opposing him was American Gen. Philip Schuyler, who used guerrilla tactics to slow down and harass the British advance. Denying the soldiers food, Schuyler cut down trees in the path, destroyed bridges, damned streams to cut across the British advance and sniped at them continuously with sharpshooters.

By the time Burgoyne reached Fort Edward, he halted to give his weary soldiers, many suffering from dysentery, time to recoup. The march across land had taken three weeks when it could normally have been made in several days. He wasted another month, awaiting communications from Howe. His supply lines reaching back 150 miles to Montreal, Burgoyne sent back requests for supplies and assistance. He was in desperate need of horses, not only to pull his cannon, but also for his Brunswick Dragoons, who would be virtually useless on foot.

After being told there were horses aplenty not far away in Vermont, Burgoyne sent Lt. Col. Friedrich von Baum with a force of 500 men, including 150 dragoons, to get the horses and whatever food they could find. Soon after leaving the main column, Baum's troops came under constant attack from sharpshooters. He sent back for reinforcements and an additional 650 men under the command of Col. Heinrich von Breymann marched out to join Baum's troops.

On Aug. 16, American militia under the command of Gen. John Stark, infiltrated von Baum's column, disguising themselves as loyalists with white badges in their hats. Once enough men had been infiltrated, the militia attacked, killing von Baum and wiping out most of his force. When von Breymann arrived, Stark's militia attacked his force, killing and wounding another 230 before the Germans broke and ran.

Without re-supplies and additional troops, Burgoyne decided to move on to Albany and wait out the winter. He crossed over to the west side of the Hudson River and marched his force down towards the village of Saratoga.

Meanwhile, the Continental Congress had blamed Schuyler for the loss of Ticonderoga and replaced him with Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, a former British officer. Gates had maneuvered his troops to Bemis Heights near Saratoga. Washington had also reinforced Gates with Col. Daniel Morgan's Virginia sharpshooters.

On Sept. 19, 1777, Burgoyne's troops assaulted Gates' positions on the Heights in what became known as the Battle of Freeman's Farm. Brunswick Gen. Baron von Riedesel commanded troops on the British left flank, Scots Gen. Simon Fraser commanded the right, and Burgoyne with Brig. Gen. James Hamilton commanded the center. Almost immediately, withering fire from the Virginia sharpshooters halted Fraser's advance. However, the American lines then came under heavy fire from Hamilton's troops, scattering them.

The fighting around the farm was heavy with back and forth actions. The Americans managed to capture the British guns, but were driven back by advancing British troops. At the same time, American sharpshooters in the trees fired on the British officers, killing and wounding many.

Gates lost one initiative when he refused to give Gen. Benedict Arnold additional troops to attack Burgoyne's center and break the British advance. Von Riedesel ordered his Brunswick artillery pieces forward and fired grapeshot into the failing American lines. Finally, Gates was forced to retire from the field. The British had won the day, but their victory had been expensive, with some 600 dead on the field compared with 300 Americans lost.

Against the advice of his own officers, on Oct. 7, Burgoyne decided to attack the Americans again on Bemis Heights and consolidate his victory.

There was also dissension within the American camp, when Gates dismissed Benedict Arnold, calling him a "son-of-a-bitch". However, Arnold did not leave the position. Instead, as the British advanced, he recognized the Scottish General, Simon Fraser, who had helped capture Quebec City from the French. Arnold told sharpshooter, Tim Murphy, to kill Fraser. Undeterred by two near misses, Fraser continued to lead his men forward. However, Murphy's third shot knocked Fraser from his horse, mortally wounded. The British advance faltered.

Arnold rode across the battlefield giving orders and leading assaults, including a successful attack on the Hessian position under the command of von Breymann, before being wounded in the thigh.

This time Burgoyne withdrew from the field, having lost another 600 men, compared to 150 Americans killed.

"Gentleman Johnny" reportedly made his way to Saratoga, where he allegedly drank and spent time with his mistress, while his beaten soldiers suffered without food and supplies. On Oct. 17, 1777, Burgoyne decided to surrender the remnants of his army. Gen. Gates allowed Burgoyne and his men to march out with full honors and gave them safe passage back to England, with the condition that they would not again serve in the war against the American Colonies. However, Congress disallowed Gates' terms and took the British soldiers prisoner, allowing only Burgoyne to return to England.

If Lexington was a "shot," then the American victory at Saratoga was considered the "thunderclap" that was heard around the world. It steeled Congress to adopt the Articles of Confederation, which brought the 13 individual colonies under its first-ever national government. In addition, the victory also caused the French, under King Louis XVI, to formally recognize the American government, bringing France into the war against England (quickly followed by Spain and the Netherlands). Support and supplies flooded into the colonies and the ships of several nations sailed out to challenge the Royal Navy.

There would be four more hard years of war before the Americans and their French allies won the decisive victory at Yorktown with the British surrender on Oct. 19, 1781. During this time, the American fighters displayed one of their signature banners, a yellow flag with a coiled rattlesnake over the words, "Don't Tread on Me."

The spectacular defeat of "Gentleman Johnny" Burgyone not only saved the American Revolution from a feared British victory, it demonstrated in gunpowder, blood and sweat that Americans were willing to fight to the end for freedom.

This is a lesson, sometimes lost to history, that is compelling and relevant anew on a July 4 week with the nation at war against the murderous terrorists of Al Qaeda.

Patrick Hayes is a contributing editor to DefenseWatch. He can be reached at gyrene@sftt.us.

The Rev. Nathan Perkins, on traveling through Vermont in 1789, had this to say after passing by the grave of Revolutionary War military commander Ethan Allen: "An awful infidel, one of the wickedest Men Yt ever walked this guilty globe."

The words were both true, and false as well. Historians have documented that Ethan Allen baited preachers, drank, and fought with anything that would move. But there is something still about a gung-ho bastard who tweaks the noses of the powers-that-be that inspires a sneaking admiration, particularly when he does the thing that nobody thinks can be done: help lead an overmatched America to victory over the British Empire.

It is believed that Ethan Allen, born on Jan. 21, 1738, was a precocious child who read everything he could get his hands on. His father, Joe Allen, sent him to a prep school in Salisbury, Conn., an educational path cut short by the elder Allen's death. Ethan returned home and worked at a variety of trades to support his family until he became an ironmaster, operating a blast furnace with his brother Heman. With his financial future set, Ethan married Mary Brownson, the daughter of a Woodbury miller.

Ethan Allen tired of the ironworking trade and began to speculate in real estate, settling in Bennington, in the New Hampshire Land Grants. At the time, New Hampshire Gov. Benning Wentworth had a neat little racket whereby he sold grants to land in what is now Vermont. Unfortunately, the British Crown had explicitly given the land in question to New York, which had sold these lands to New York speculators. When the New York speculators set out to evict the holders of Wentworth grants, a number of New Hampshire speculators tried to litigate the matter.

The lawsuit went nowhere. According to Ray Raphael in A People's History of the American Revolution, two presiding judges, the attorney general and the plaintiff's lawyer all had New York claims to land in the region. When the expected landslide legal opinion turned against the New Hampshire settlers, Ethan Allen returned to Bennington and called up all of his relatives and friends who owned New Hampshire deeds to assemble at Stephen Fay's tavern, the Catamount.

These men called themselves the Green Mountain Boys, and dedicated themselves to the intimidation of all who held New York deeds in the New Hampshire Land Grants. Their modus operandi was simple: they assembled at night and vandalized the property of New York deedholders. Typically, they stained their faces with soot or bark and dressed as Indians, a disguise that seems to have fooled no one but which added to the legend surrounding the Green Mountain Boys.

Ethan Allen, for all his huge size (6'4") and bluster, seems to have aimed his tactics more at intimidation than at actual violence. There is the oft-reported story of the two New York sheriffs whom Allen had locked in two separate rooms for the night. When the two awoke, Allen spoke to each separately, showing them what appeared to be a body strung up from a tree outside the window. Each sheriff, thinking that Allen had had the other one hanged, left in a panic when the Green Mountain Boys arranged a convenient escape.

According to Robert Leckie in his indispensable history of the American Revolution, George Washington's War, the two sheriffs told first of his barbarity, and then of his sneakiness, when the trick was found out. These two attributes, along with the dedication and daring of the Green Mountain Boys who followed him, made Ethan Allen the likeliest candidate for a foray against the British when the Revolutionary War broke out.

Ethan Allen's first military exploit was the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. According to A. J. Langguth in his book, Patriots, Massachusetts rebel leader Samuel Adams first envisioned the assault on Ticonderoga. The taking of this fort was seen as a vital step against the British in the event of armed hostilities. Located 250 miles north of New York City on Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga was the 18th century gateway to Canada, in addition to having much-needed artillery, including cannon, mortars and howitzers. Pittsfield lawyer John Brown was sent to Canada to report on possible Canadian support for an American rebellion, while Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys prepared for the assault.

Benedict Arnold, the well-regarded captain of the Connecticut Governor's Foot Guards, entered the picture. Arnold paid a visit to Joseph Warren and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and persuaded them to allow him to lead an expedition against Fort Ticonderoga. With the rank of colonel in the Continental Army and an authorization from the committee to round up 400 men for this action, Arnold set forth.

Upon hearing that the Green Mountain Boys had orders to take Fort Ticonderoga, Arnold intercepted them at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington. At first, the Green Mountain Boys laughed at Arnold and his authorization from the Committee. Ultimately, however, Allen and Arnold agreed to co-command the expedition.

At the time Fort Ticonderoga was undermanned and deteriorating, with some reports indicating that only 42 British soldiers were garrisoned there at the moment the American raiding party surprised the dozing sentry at the fortress gate. Awakening to the oncoming invaders, the sentry first aimed his weapon, then turned tail and ran. The Green Mountain Boys disarmed the remaining British troops and secured the fort, while Allen and Arnold confronted Lt. Jocelyn Feltham.

There is some dispute as to what Allen's exact words were, both to Feltham and to fort commander Capt. William Delaplace. The poetic version has Allen demanding the surrender of the fort from Feltham "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The less heroic, and possibly more accurate version, had Allen shouting at Delaplace to "Come out of there, you G-ddamn old rat!"

Whatever the words, Fort Ticonderoga was now in the hands of the American Army. The road to Canada was now open.

Despite their incompatibilities, Allen and Arnold were a fairly effective team, even if they themselves didn't think so. They each traveled to Philadelphia to persuade the newly-formed Continental Congress to authorize them to conquer Canada. To head this mission, Congress chose neither Allen nor Arnold, settling instead on Gen. Philip Schuyler. Arnold was later tapped for an eastern expedition into Canada to form the second of a two-pronged invasion,

Schuyler took a remnant of the original Green Mountain Boys with him, but Allen was no longer in charge, having been replaced by Seth Warner when a number of the more cautious souls in the New Hampshire Land Grants held an election. Allen persuaded Schuyler to allow him to go along on the expedition in the capacity of a scout and negotiator with the French Canadians and the Indians. Allen's most important purpose here was to secure troops from both parties.

The expedition's second in command, Richard Montgomery, set a siege of Montreal and dispatched Ethan Allen with a force of 110 and lawyer John Brown with a force of 200 to flank the enemy and meet up with a group of Canadians. Their mission was to disrupt the British supply line. Unfortunately, when they met up in the British rear, Brown suggested that they take Montreal themselves in their own two-pronged attack. Accordingly they set out, Brown to move above the town and Allen below.

Brown didn't show up by the deadline, and the Canadians on Allen's team melted into the woods. After a short battle, Allen was forced to surrender. He had about 37 men left.

Two irate Indians tried to stick a tomahawk into Allen's skull, but through the offices of an Irishman with a fixed bayonet and a British officer commandeered into a body shield, Allen escaped unharmed. His assailants disappeared into the woods.

Col. Richard Prescott, commander of the British garrison, at first wanted to execute the Canadians captured with Allen. At this point, Allen bared his chest and told Prescott, "I am the sole cause of their taking up arms." He demanded that Prescott shoot him instead. Prescott refused, and had Allen sent to London in irons.

Allen was ultimately returned to America in a prisoner exchange, his military career over. Allen settled back in Vermont, where he died on Feb. 12, 1789. But his reputation as one of America's first successful military commanders endures to this day.

Most Americans eagerly anticipate the July 4th holiday each year. It is a time for picnics, parades and fireworks. We all look forward to the "rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air," and enjoying our nation's birthday party.

But this is also a good time to look at the underlying history that stretches in an unbroken thread from the 1770s to the present, including the evolution of the U.S. military from the colonial-era militia to the All-Volunteer Force of today.

The American military arose from the bands of colonial militia that were composed of ordinary citizens - farmers, fishermen, carpenters, etc. - basically the same cross-section of citizens who make up the American military today.

The American Revolutionary War stemmed from a growing public reaction against British imperial injustice toward the colonists. This opposition escalated into outright rebellion following the first shedding of American blood at Lexington green on Apr. 19, 1775. That "shot heard round the world," as poet Ralph Waldo Emerson later wrote, inspired the growth of irregular armed groups that joined the separate state militias, which would become a strong reinforcement to the smaller Continental Army under the command of Gen. George Washington.

It was this combined force of regulars, militiamen and later, their French allies that took on and defeated the British army, the greatest military power in Europe and the Americas.

Who were these rag-tag American soldiers? They were men who loved their country, who knew how to bear arms, who knew how to survive in harsh and hostile environments, and most important, who were flexible and knew how to improvise battlefield tactics against a numerically superior enemy. These are the best characteristics of the U.S. military today, fueled by an impassioned sense of protectiveness for the nation and its citizens.

The rage of Concord is the same as the rage of Pearl Harbor, and identical to the rage of 9/11. The bone-numbing cold of the winter at Valley Forge was the same harsh experience as at the "frozen Chosin" Reservoir in North Korea, or the snowy ridges of Gardez in the Afghan mountains this year. We see a common history of suffering, adversity and hardship - and our soldiers' victory over such odds, no matter the specific time or place or degree of military technology.

And we have rarely fought without a chorus of dissent. The American Revolution split the colonists three ways, with one-third strongly supporting the rebellion, another one-third indifferent or unsure, and a final one-third supporting the Crown strongly enough that many fought the rebels or chose to emigrate. Just as in the Civil War, where two major parts of the nation raised armies against the other; or in Vietnam, where many Americans argued the war was ill-conceived and undeserving of support.

As thousands of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines this week celebrate their nation's birthday at hostile places far from home, it should be a comfort to them to know that they share a rich legacy, that this country was born in a crucible of blood and fire and has survived and prospered because it is protected by American warriors willing to lay down their lives for our freedoms.

Carmela Sibley is a resident of Kansas and long active in veterans' affairs. She can be reached at carmela@eecs.ku.edu.

When I was a young man, I came across a creed written by Dean Alfange. I was so impressed by this statement of freedom and what it means that I memorized it and have kept it with me through all my years of military service, and everything I have done since.

What makes this statement particularly interesting is Dean Alfange's background.

The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born Dec. 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922. Hamilton offers the "Dean Alfange Essay Prizes" established by Dean Alfange and awarded to the students who write the best and second-best essays on a feature or an issue of American constitutional government.

This is all well and good, but when I tell you that Alfange was the American Labor candidate for governor of New York and a founder of the Liberal Party of New York, you may well be surprised.

I think what this tells us on this day commemorating the longest duration representative democracy on this planet, that fundamentally, we all are
Americans. The grave markers on the hillsides overlooking the beaches of Normandy do not list Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative or any other political label. All they list is a name and other vital statistics of an American soldier who died for freedom on those distant shores.

Alfange understood this, as thousands of young soldiers, sailors, and airmen understand today. Here then is my tribute to the man who wrote this a century ago, and to the country which makes it possible to live in freedom today, and for all the tomorrows to come:

I have a fancy version of this creed on my website for any of you who wish to download and frame it: www.argee.net/my_creed.htm.

Robert G. Williscroft is DefenseWatch Navy Editor. He can be reached at dwnavyeditor@argee.net.

Today my son, along with 1,200 other young men and women, began his journey to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO. Tomorrow will be in-processing day at the Academy. Not just starting college, Rich will begin his career in the U.S. Air Force. I am thankful for the options that the future holds for him, options I did not have at his age.

When I first had children, I always thought of them as my gift to the future. Well, the future is now, and my son has made the decision to become a U.S. Air Force officer, a keeper of peace, a defender of freedom. Rich enters the Academy as the first class in a generation to enter during wartime.

I pray that you, America, will pray for all the men and women in our armed services, that they are given wisdom and strength.

I pray that you will encourage our elected congressional representatives to support the needs of our armed services, in peace and in war.

I pray that this 4th of July you truly cherish your gift of freedom and recognize the price that is sometimes paid for that freedom.

I pray for peace.

--Deborah A. Yates

Fourth of July Message From the Secretary of Defense

At a critical moment during the Revolutionary War, when his army was surrounded and in danger of being destroyed, Gen. George Washington issued this order: "Put only Americans on guard tonight." Washington knew, at that moment of crisis, he could rely on those citizen-soldiers - volunteers who had left behind their families and farms to risk everything for the cause of freedom.

Thanks to their service and sacrifice, America achieved her independence. And every July 4th since, Americans have come together to give thanks for our freedom and what our country has become: the freest, most creative and dynamic nation on earth.

This Fourth of July across America, families will enjoy picnics, and parades, and the uplifting beat of "The Stars and Stripes Forever." But our celebrations are tempered by the knowledge that the freedoms we hold sacred and dear have once again come under attack.

So today, as in General Washington's time, we take comfort in the knowledge that Americans like you are on guard tonight - soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen.

Like the Minute Men who dropped their pitchforks and took up rifles to defend their new nation in 1776, each of you stepped forward to defend America against the new threats of this new century.

Through your service and sacrifice, you help make every day Independence Day for the United States of America.

Our people are free because your hearts are brave. And so on this Fourth of July, we stop to say to each of you: Thank you for what you do for our country.

Independence Day 2002 Message From the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

When our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, they mutually pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to each other and to the world. During the course of the seven-year war that followed, nine of the signers died of wounds or hardships, 17 lost everything that they owned, and five were imprisoned or captured. They risked all they had, sacrificing everything for freedom - they all kept their sacred honor.

Today, our country is at war - a very different and nontraditional war against a very dangerous and elusive enemy. This enemy threatens the principles and values that freedom-loving people hold dear - equality, self-governance, religious tolerance and the rule of law.

President John F. Kennedy in the midst of another struggle once observed: "When there is a visible enemy to fight in open combat … many serve, all applaud, and the tide of patriotism runs high. But when there is a long, slow struggle with no immediate visible foe, your choice will seem hard indeed."

Today, our enemy is not always visible, and as President Bush has said, winning this war will take time. We must have patience and perseverance in this conflict to preserve our freedoms. Remember on this Independence Day to honor our forefathers for their courage, vision and sacrifices - and let us also honor them by staying focused on winning this war!

The Joint Chiefs of Staff and I join with every American this Fourth of July in remembering how precious our rights and freedoms are. We honor your service, your courage, and your countless sacrifices at sea, in the air, and on distant fields of battle. May God continue to bless this great nation, the members of our Armed Forces, DoD civilians, and their families.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them ….

Do these opening phrases of a document under which the United States was founded ring familiar with you? How about the implied and expressed concept of a nation recognizing its connection with the deity?

Thomas Jefferson penned these words between June 11 and June 28, 1776. They are the first words of The Declaration Of Independence, our nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and freedom that has endured, no matter what the cost, for 226 years.

Today, however, because of a ruling by the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco which has rocked the very foundation of our country, Jefferson's words may not be publicly spoken. It is probably no coincidence that this ruling emanated from the city that was at the apex of the 1960s drug culture that gave us The Grateful Dead and Haight-Ashbury, and where the notorious advocate of illegal drug use, Dr. Timothy Leary, gave his most memorable speech encouraging everyone to "turn on, tune in and drop out." San Francisco has once again left its dubious mark on American society.

Millions of Americans for decades past have spoken and recited this solemn oath pledging allegiance to "one nation, under God …. " As well, millions of American soldiers have sworn to defend their country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help me God, in their enlistment oaths. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel have given their lives living up to that promise to support their flag and nation in the eyes of God as they, in their hearts and every sinew of their being, believed God to be.

What makes this ruling incomprehensible as well as ridiculous is that it contradicts some of the more basic utterances heard in the nation's courts and Congress itself:

First, each person taking the witness stand in any courtroom is asked to swear "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God."

Second, the United States Supreme Court begins each of its sessions with the uttering of the statement, "God save the United States and this honorable court." Congress

Third, Congress begins each convening session with a formal prayer. And if that weren't enough, the next time you have paper money in your hand, you can read where it says, "In God We Trust."

Nevertheless, last week, in a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the federal appellate court ruled that the use of the words, "under God," in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Constitution's clause barring the establishment of religion.

The court enjoined American citizens who live in its jurisdiction speaking that vital part of the Pledge of Allegiance that has been recited nationwide since 1954. This includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the territories of Guam and the northern Marianas.

Congress inserted the "under God" proviso at the height of the Cold War after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, religious leaders and other citizens who wanted to make the distinction that the United States was different from what they regarded as "godless Communism."

The tribunal noted that when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the legislation to insert the phrase, "under God," he declared, "Millions of our school children will proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty."

But nearly five decades later, an atheist named Michael A. Newdow sued to have the phrase declared unconstitutional.

Newdow argued that reciting the Pledge including the "religious idea that certain people don't agree with" was improper, and he did not want his young daughter to be compelled to recite such words. The federal appellate court agreed with Newdow's obtuse view, although a federal district court judge had dismissed his case earlier.

But appellate court Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote in his decision, "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical … to a profession that we are a nation ''under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion."

Extending the cruel logic of Goodwin's declaration, we can further dissect the Pledge of Allegiance and widen the criticism of its content:

Who is "I," the first word of the pledge? I am I, and since words that come out of my mouth are at the scrutiny and approval of the court, they are not my words, but rather a legally approved script, so there is no "I."

What is "allegiance?" In the extreme case, we can identify its meaning as total servitude. Should this word, which alludes to an implied concept, be eliminated? It ominously sounds extreme and smacks of finality, leaving little wiggle room, like as in lying or not lying, stealing or not stealing, cheating or not cheating, having sexual relations with that woman or not having sexual relations with that woman. No - this is too absolute a term, it implies that the truth is more than the definition of the word "is," is.

Now, what about the word "republic" - well, it sounds too much like the word, "Republican," so we had better remove that one as well!

Moving on, it is clear that the phrase, "one nation," sounds too much like global isolationism. We don't want to offend our foreign neighbors, so delete it!

Here's a real problem phrase: "for which it stands." Stands? This is an insensitive assertion and a slap in the face for handicapped people, who may take offense at any allusion to standing. So strike it!

What about "indivisible"? In a society where everything is divisible by preferred groups with their own special rights, any proclamation of unity is obviously divisive. Delete!

And the phrase, "liberty and justice for all"? See the preceding paragraph. This is an obsolete concept given our society's descent into group politics and the cult of victimization. Out with it!

There is some good news to report from this ill-thought-out and destructive court ruling. The lone dissenting panelist, Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez, wisely cautioned that under this theory, "We will soon find ourselves prohibited from using our album of patriotic songs in public settings."

Fernandez observed that the songs, "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful" would be outlawed under the presumptions of the two-judge majority. As for the national anthem itself, he noted that we might get away with the first three stanzas, but would clearly risk another court-ordered ban by performing the fourth:

It is quite likely that this court ruling will be overturned as it carries the notion of protecting a minority right to such an extreme as to wage war on some of the basic fabrics of our national identity.

It is of some consolation to note that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is the nation's most overturned appellate court in the nation, largely because of its record in issuing liberal, activist opinions that go far beyond reasonable interpretations of the law aimed at safeguarding individual rights. I look forward with optimism to the inevitable U.S. Supreme Court ruling that slaps this one down.

But one thing the appellate judges did affirm in their ham-handed decision against the Pledge is a basic premise of American constitutional law: Stupidity itself is not unconstitutional.

J. David Galland, Deputy Editor of DefenseWatch, is a retired veteran of over thirty years of service in military intelligence who resides in Germany. He can be reached at defensewatch02@yahoo.com.

Recall the brouhaha about military absentee ballots in Florida during the contentious aftermath of the 2000 presidential election?

However, the disenfranchisement of overseas military personnel is not limited to Florida, and it did not begin in 2000. Military personnel have often been disenfranchised for as long as they have been permitted to vote at all. The problem is most severe for those personnel who serve at sea or at isolated overseas duty stations, where mail service is slow and intermittent.

Significant progress has been made however. The fiscal year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act contains a whole title - Title XVI - on uniformed services voting (sections 1601-07). The NDAA was enacted on Dec. 27, 2001. Credit for including these provisions in the NDAA should go to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-CO.

Section 1601(a) of the NDAA reads as follows: "It is the sense of Congress that each person who is an administrator of a federal, state, or local election (1) should be aware of the importance of the ability of each uniformed services voter to exercise the right to vote; and (2) should perform that person's duties as an election administrator with the intent to ensure that (a) each uniformed services voter receives the utmost consideration and cooperation when voting; (b) each valid ballot, cast by such a voter, is duly counted …. "

Section 1602 focuses on getting the services to do a better job of appointing, training, and motivating voting assistance officers. This section requires effectiveness and compliance reviews by the Department of Defense inspector general. Section 1602 further provides that appointing qualified voting assistance officers is the responsibility of commanders at all levels.

If a service member has served as a voting assistance officer, his or her performance evaluation must comment on his or her performance. Section 1602 also requires regular assessments of mail delivery from overseas.

Improving mail service can help, but the real long-range solution is electronic voting. As we enter the 21st century, most states still conduct absentee voting essentially as they did in the 19th century, by mail.

As you can imagine, there are three time-consuming steps in the absentee voting process.

First, the absentee ballot request must travel from the voter to the election official.

Second, the unmarked ballot must travel from the election official to the voter. Finally, the marked ballot must travel from the voter to the election official. Each of these steps can take weeks if "snail mail" must be used, but only seconds if secure electronic means are permitted.

With regard to electronic voting, the website of VoteHere, Inc. (which is at www.votehere.net) demonstrates that the technology already exists that will enable military personnel and others to cast secure, secret ballots by electronic means. Certainly, this electronic system is far more secure than the postal-based system used for absentee voting today.

Section 1604 requires the Department of Defense to conduct an electronic voting demonstration project in conjunction with the November 2002 general election. The project "shall be carried out with the participation of sufficient numbers of uniformed services voters so that the results are statistically relevant." The Department of Defense conducted such a demonstration project in the 2000 presidential election, but fewer than 100 voters participated.

Section 1603 enacts a new section in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act:

"For the purposes of voting ... a person who is absent from a state in compliance with military or naval orders shall not, solely by reason of that absence: (1) be deemed to have lost a residence or domicile in that state, without regard to whether the person intends to return to that state." This new section, now codified at 50 U.S.C. App. 594, effectively overrules Casarez v. Val Verde County, 957 F. Supp. 847, 860 (W.D. Tex. 1997). Without this new protection, the career service member may lose the right to vote anywhere if he or she changes his or her mind about where to live upon retirement.

Section 1606 requires each state to accept a single federal post card application as a simultaneous absentee ballot request for all the federal elections (including primaries) to be held in the state in that calendar year.

Finally, Section 1607 provides that the Secretary of Defense and the secretaries of the military departments "may not ... prohibit the designation or use of a qualifying facility under the jurisdiction of the secretary as an official polling place for local, state, or federal elections." This provision can be waived in those instances where local security considerations make it inadvisable to have a polling place in a military facility.

Someone needs to carry the news about these important new provisions to the nation's 5,000 local election officials.

Election officials need to bend over backwards to ensure that the brave young men and women who serve in our armed forces get the opportunity to vote this year, and to have their ballots counted. After all, were it not for the sacrifices of military personnel, from the American Revolution to "Operation Enduring Freedom," none of us would have the opportunity to vote in free elections.

Samuel F. Wright is a judge advocate in the Naval Reserve, but these are his personal views. He has recruited more than 2,100 volunteers, mostly military reservists and retirees, working to facilitate military and overseas voting. His e-mail address is samwright50@yahoo.com.