Friday, May 26, 2023

SUCKERS ALERT-- Soldiers, Veterans & -- SLIMY CIVILIANS


06 Sept 2020--


     "...boasted he was "making more in a week than a soldier made in a month..." 

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Undertaker: They say he isn't fit to be buried there. Salesman: What? In Boot Hill?! Henry: There's nothing up there but murders, cutthroats and derelict old barflies, and if they ever felt exclusive, brother they're past it now. Undertaker: They happen to be white, friend. And old Sam ... old Sam was an Indian. Henry: Well I'll be damned. I never knew you had to be anything but a corpse to get into Boot Hill. How long's this been going on? Undertaker: Since the town got `civilized`. 

Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--  Calling members of the armed forces of the United States names is nothing new.  Lately, it has become part and parcel to the overall pattern of misbehavior in the most civilized nation in the world. Not unlike the film, "The Magnificent Seven," (1960) when Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Steve McQueen) had to meet the welcoming committee at the cemetery, they discovered what the civilized world was all about.

     But the shameful behavior was certainly frowned upon during World War II and the person responsible liable for strong criminal charges. As reported by the Colorado Daily Sentinel  in March, 1942; 


"DENVER MAN SAYS SOLDIERS ARE 'SUCKERS'. Denver March 28 (AP)-- Rudolph Fahl, 44, a paint salesman and former Denver school teacher, will be prosecuted on federal charges of attempting to undermine morale of military forces in the nation's first sedition case of the present war." (1)
     Fahl was, according to the article, accused of calling soldiers at Lowry Field "suckers" and "were not fighting to preserve democracy." The attorney general in Washington stated he would be charged under the 1940 Smith Act. Fahl made his derogatory comments having lost his job as a school teacher and was distributing magazines at the base when he was heard making the comments, along with "many other more vicious statements." Fahl was picked up by the FBI a day later in Montana. He denied making the statements at his sedition trial and was acquitted on June 15, 1942. (2)
     In yet another case that same year in July, truckdriver Francis Mauser, while drunk and "matching for drinks" with soldiers in Tucson boasted he was "making more in a week than a soldier made in a month." The FBI investigated allegations that Mauser called the soldiers "suckers" and found little evidence to indict the trucker.
     Two days later, the "soldier-sucker" controversy became regional, and inferred  the days of the Civil War between the North and South, as reported in the Brewton, Alabama Standard;
     "When 'Life' quoted an Alabama Congressman as boasting 'they had to start selective service to keep our Southern boys from filling up the army," its editors could be certain they were printing not so much prideful bragging as the truth." (4)
The editorial noted that the words 'soldier' and 'sucker'  weren't "synonymous to the Southerner as they are to people in 'other' sections of the country."
By 1944, as many servicemen were being discharged, they discovered they couldn't land a job back in America for lack of skills and began to post notes in newspaper editorials about the scarcity of employment, equating their duty as a soldier to being a sucker. (5)
A month later in Canada, Henry Laurier was fined $100 for "making statements likely to be prejudicial to the safety of the state and the prosecution of the war." (6) Freda Taylor accused Laurier of calling her brother a "sucker" for being in the service. 
     Criticism of the soldier as a loser and a sucker became  popular during the tumultuous Vietnam War era when, as reported in the Santa Maria Times by Lee Roderick in 1980;


      "But the special psychological scars from Vietnam remain to haunt many veterans. (Max) Cleland says a recent national poll showed that over 60 percent of Americans believe that Vietnam veterans were 'suckers' to go to Vietnam." (7)
Cleland had been appointed by President Carter as the head of the Veterans Administration and served in Vietnam. At the end of 1979, a Louis Harris poll conducted on the attitude toward Vietnam veterans indicated the strong animosity the nation still had nearly a decade after America pulled out of Southeast Asia;
     "Indeed, a Lou Harris poll released last month showed that 62 percent of Americans agreed that 'veterans of the Vietnam War were made suckers, having to risk their lives in the wrong war in the wrong place place at the wrong time." (8)
The Harris Poll did succeed in separating the war from the soldier and the victim from the sucker even though it may not have been read that way by the media. The poll indicated overwhelmingly that veterans were suffering from bad press, drugs and alcohol with public respect actually approaching three to one in favor. The VA didn't fare as well. (9)
     Of course, soldiers knew how to pay a compliment with a compliment, as related in 1995 in Missouri The Daily Journal by former US Marine Valerie Lilley, a Persian Gulf War veteran;
     "After going through boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., ('We were taught to sing songs about slimy civilians,' and further training in California...)" (10) 


     The phrase slimy civilian was a hallmark slogan for Marines, an in your face rebuttal for the names being dished out, like the other one, "jarhead," that became commonplace for non-combatants and draft dodgers. Jim Doyle, recounting his own entry into the service, allowed himself the privilege of being called the derogatory phrase;
     "Within just a few seconds, life changed. I wasn't a slimy civilian creep drinking beer and chasing skirts. I was a Recruit, even lower than a Private in the United States Army." (11)

     What can be gained from all of the above? Possibly that soldiers, sailors, airmen and all who have served, reserve the right (not a privilege) to be called anything by anyone at anytime; it comes with the territory. They fought to preserve that right, and that goes for everybody, from the lowliest overpaid news journalist to the person holding the highest office in the land. 



Cited
1.) Fahl, Colorado Daily Sentinel, 28 March, 1942
2.) Acquitted, The Sumter Item, 14 June 1942, Page 4
3.) Mauser, Arizona Daily Star, 07 July 1942, Page 10
4.) South, The Brewton Standard, 09 July 1942, Page 4.
5.) Jobs, NY Daily News, 30 July 1944, Page 33.
6.) Fined, The Montreal Gazette, 23 Aug 1944, Page 12.
7.) Vietnam, Santa Maria Times, 22 Aug 1980, Page 4.
8.) Poll, The Montana Missoulian, 12 Dec 1979, Page 2
9.) Stats, The Edmonton Journal, 23 Nov 1979, Page 73.
10.) Slimy, The Missouri Daily Journal, 05 Dec 1995, Page 4.
11.) recruit, The Fresno Bee, 10 Mar 2012, A13.

Magnificent Seven screenshot, https://youtu.be/yjEcOkwV2MU
Suckers, 
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