re: Fort Polk officially renamed

Jungle Operations Training Course (JOTC) at Schofield Barracks on Oahu is the Army's last jungle training area. It was in Panama up until the late 90's. I only ever met one soldier that had been through it. Interestingly, if you have completed the courses you can now wear a Jungle or Artic tab but only while serving in USARPAC.

What do you mean? We can navigate ships without hitting shite under normal circumstances, surely we can handle complex threats.

Affirmative action medal and naming.

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in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black World War I veteran who has received acclaim for single-handedly fighting off a group of raiding German soldiers and saving a fellow soldier from being captured.

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I can dig it.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

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Meanwhile China is preparing to annihilate the U.S. military in record time. It will be a bloodbath

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I’m always struck by these arguments when white guys (like myself) get bothered when something is remade/renamed after someone who doesn’t look like them. Getting bothered by not seeing yourself in things seems to me like an acknowledgement that representation matters. Fairly large percentages of our population never saw themselves shown, for many various reasons (like Johnson not getting recognized in his own day), and have always felt like you do now, not seeing yourself literally everywhere.

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The butthurt is ridiculous. Most of these bases were named after rebel generals in what amounted basically to a vote buying scheme by Woodrow Wilson to gain support for entry into WW1 from the southern states. (Fort Polk was actually built later, but the trend was dominant.)

In other words, Johnson fought for a commander in chief that was actively segregating the civil service and attempting to outright expel blacks like him from good federal jobs - on top of just general pandering to hardline racists throughout the country.

Because of Johnson's actions, he received the Croix de Guerre from France (in real time) - the first American to ever do so. This country and its armed services were so pitifully racist that they instead ignored this actual hero, and left him to rot when he returned home, injured, from his service.

The idea that this person is less worthy than some rebel a-hole is ridiculous. And I don't care if it's woke or not. Some thing are actually righteous. This board will start 500 threads about Dick Winters, but can't find it in their hearts to not piss in this gentleman's face? "Erasing history"? What a stupid arse thing to say. The erasure if history was the intentional ignoring of heroes like Johnson. shite gets re-named all the time. Get over it.

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Darth, there are too many people who do not know our history. We need to teach it better and naming bases after real heroes is a great way to get things started.

This blame man fought under the Stars and Stripes even though back in the US he was considered a second class citizen in a lot of places. No, the US isn’t perfect and there were many injustices, but he fought anyway.

People need to ask themselves why?

Personally, I like to think it was because despite our flaws, we were the greatest country in Earth and in time we would be even better. Johnson had to have seen a lot of good here to have fought so hard. People need to remember that.

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Pvt. Johnson is certainly a hell of a lot more deserving than a Confederate who openly defied orders, got his arse kicked in nearly every battle he led, and only had his job b/c he was friends w/Jefferson Davis. Polk was so awful in the field the Union considered his death to be a negative. The guy is easily the least deserving CSA member to get a base named after him by a long shot.

Polk’s ghost rocking up to the fort and seeing “Johnson”