[Granville-Hough] 16 Feb 2010 - Re: The War

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:42:07 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Re: The War - 16 Feb 2010

>From Mimi Lozano:

> Thank you Granville . . .  you are always there helping.
>
> God bless you.  Hope you are hanging on OK.
>
> I am forwarding your letter to Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez to include on 
> the Defend the Honor website  . .  Love, Mimi
>
> In a message dated 8/19/2007 2:01:57 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> gwhough at oakapple.net writes:

>> Subj: *The War *
>> Date: 8/19/2007 2:01:57 PM Pacific Standard Time
>> From: gwhough at oakapple.net <mailto:gwhough at oakapple.net>
>>
>>
>>
>> I, Granville W. Hough, received my PhD in Public Administration in 1970
>> from the American University in Washington, DC.  I was then teaching
>> Business Management at California State University at Fullerton, and
>> continued to teach there until I retired in 1992.  When I started
>> teaching there, I had retired from the Regular Army, having served from
>> Nov 1942 until 1 Jan 1969.
>>   I served in all the wars from WW II through Vietnam, though I really
>> considered myself a Cold War specialist.  I went through the Army
>> professional education program, including graduation from the United
>> States Military Academy, the Artillery schools, Command and General
>> Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, and the Industrial College of the
>> Armed Forces in Washington, DC.  In all my schooling, we accepted that
>> the American soldier we were taught to lead was first of all American,
>> and that he might come from a multitude of racial and ethnic
>> backgrounds.  You had to adapt your leadership techniques to what would
>> gain most cooperation from the people you had, not from any hypothetical
>> group.
>>   After the war, there lingered some segregated units in the American
>> Army, and some were black, some Puerto Rican, and perhaps others I did
>> not know about.  It was President Truman who led the way to removing
>> segregation from the Army.  I do not know, but it may be, that he was
>> influenced by the records of individuals and units as they participated
>> in WW II.  I can truly say that I spent four years of my life
>> integrating blacks and Puerto Ricans into the Army with no racial
>> designations.  My first experience was at Fort Sill with a black unit,
>> the 969th Field Artillery Battalion.  We did everything we were asked to
>> do, and we did it better than white units.  Our soldiers were mostly
>> veterans of WW II, and they were dedicated and patriotic.  I believe it
>> was in early 1949 when our battalion was deactivated and our black
>> soldiers were transferred to other units.  If there was any
>> discrimination, it disappeared in the Korean War, when all fought for
>> each other.  I then went to Puerto Rico where the units were still
>> segregated, and I was assigned to the 504th Field Artillery Battalion. 
>> I was Battalion Communications officer and later Battery Commander.  The
>> Puerto Ricans were the best soldiers I served with in my army career,
>> and they could do anything better than white units.  When they were sent
>> to other units as replacements, they made their own marks as
>> individuals.  One young man I helped train had just been recruited from
>> his high school graduating class in 1949.  He served with distinction in
>> Korea and Vietnam.  When I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1969, he
>> was also a Lieutenant Colonel.
>>   If I were to prepare the documentary for WW II as "The War," I would
>> want to show it as a cross-section of all Americans.  I would find
>> actors who represented every racial group.  I would show acts of heroism
>> of the Japanese in Italy, the blacks in the "Red Ball Express,"  the
>> black pilots from Tuskeegee, the Navahos who were the code talkers in
>> the front lines with the Marines, and many others. There is ample
>> history to support a wonderful portrayal of all Americans doing their
>> best and fighting for their country.  It is no place, either by omission
>> or commission, to suggest otherwise.
>>   With my regards, Granville W. Hough, Lt Col, Artillery, and PhD,
>> Public Administration, and Professor Emeritus, California State 
>> University.