"In the brave squares of war."

Here's the unlikely story of a submariner who was awarded the Bronze Star (w/ Combat "V") in...Iraq! This one caught my eye for a number of reasons: his hometown is near my own birthplace; he's a submariner who finds himself amidst desert sands and roadside bombs;

...and above all, it illustrates the flexibility and innovation of our military as so often noted by VDH. In the tradition of Western democratic armies, we succeed in large part because we value the individual. As the story reads:

Taggart said he was sent to Iraq because his experience as a communications specialist was something the military needed. Eventually Taggart’s expertise would play even further when the need arose for more security detachments.

“They (military leaders) looked and saw I had law enforcement experience and offered me a job to take over as Personnel Security Detachment team commander,” he said. “I accepted the job and started the first of my two five-man teams.”

As team commander, Taggart was responsible for the formation, training and deployment of the PSD Teams. He completed more than 200 missions from Iraq’s border with Turkey and Syria all the way to Kuwait. During these missions, Taggart twice discovered roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), cleared the area, set up security and waited for Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams to declare it safe. In one incident, Taggart was wounded by an IED and continued his duties, refusing to leave the area until the mission was complete. Taggart was also involved in four separate firefights.

For most submariners, getting into firefights, securing areas around roadside bombs and logging thousands of miles across Iraq are not something they envision doing while patrolling the seas. But for Taggart, this experience was expected.

“That (experience) was a goal,” said Taggart. “Throughout my military career, I volunteered to go to many places. When I was on shore duty, I went to Japan and Korea; and I once completed two NATO operations on Chilean submarines. I’ve been trying to do something different than just submarines."

Again, I think the military's ability to adapt and overcome, precisely through its fundamental reliance upon and elevation of the individual sailor, soldier, marine, and guardsman is a formidible prescription for sucess.

Notice that several key words in the above excerpt illustrate this principle of free-thinking and individuality: "specialist", "experience", "expertise", "goal", "team", "responsible", "training", "volunteer", and even "career". These are the words of Western democracy in action.

I'm sure many critics--spying a half-empty glass--would say that this only demonstrates the shortcomings of our military. As if our Navy in the early days of WWII never had to radically rethink it's entire strategy--making carriers, not battleships, the centerpieces of the fleet, and firing many (if not most) submarine skippers who tepidly played it safe and failed to chalk up sufficient tonnage of enemy shipping.

I close with just one instance of VDH's thoughts on the matter:

Yet in the long run, such imported technological expertise cannot be maintained, constantly improved, or used to its optimum potential without free citizens, secular universities, transparent government, and open inquiry. These intangible values and concrete institutions are the real engines that drive the modern Western ability to field high-tech arms and disciplined soldiers in the first place. For all the worry about weapons of mass destruction, neither Iran, nor North Korea, nor Libya, despite the purchased veneer of a sophisticated military, could ever defeat a militarily serious Western state of comparable size unless it underwent radical social and cultural democratic reform—, which ironically might then deprive it of any impulse to attack the West in the first place.

(hat tip: Rontini)