Yeager Named to California Hall of Fame
World War II fighter ace and Air Force test pilot Brigadier General (Ret) Chuck Yeager will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame in December.
The California Hall of Fame was created in 2006 by the Governor’s wife, Maria Shriver, and the California Museum. Its purpose is to
recognize legendary Californians who have influenced the state, the nation and the world.
Yeager’s fellow inductees are an eclectic group, including George Lucas, John Madden, and Harvey Milk. Prior inductees include Walt Disney, Amelia Earhart, and Ronald Reagan.
In his autobiography, Chuck Yeager tells of receiving orders to fly to some particular grid coordinates in Germany and kill every living thing within a square mile. I don’t remember the exact quote, but it was something to the effect that he didn’t feel good about it, but orders is orders: more or less the Nuremberg defense. The losers don’t get a chance to raise the question.
Curtiss LeMay once famously remarked that it was a good thing we won or he and many other of the Allied commanders would have been prosecuted for war crimes.
http://www.erlingwold.com/2009/03/war-crime-and-punishment.html
I guess it all depends on which side of the fence you sit on.
Doobie,
While your statement is valid, an equal opportunity applies to examples where the US military was completely in the right to take a shot, and yet refrained from shooting due to civilian proximity or respect for a foreign country’s legal system, however different it is from ours. I personally have witnessed multiple cases of restraint, one just last week. My assessment is that the US spends an overwhelming amount of effort on restraint, especially when compared to the actions of the current adversary.