USMA IN THE NEWS
By RON MARTZ, BOB DART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 2, 2004
Matthew Morris did not consider it a sacrifice when he had to abandon his postgraduate studies at the University of Georgia upon being drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1967.
He saw it as his duty.
Nor did his mother consider it a sacrifice to send a third son to war. Two of Morris' older brothers served in World War II. One contracted malaria in the Philippines and died a few years after returning home.
"She regarded that as the duty of citizenship. It was part of the price to pay. But that was the old world," said Morris, now an associate professor of humanities at Oxford College of Emory University.
The new, post-Vietnam world --- with its all-volunteer military force --- sees obligation to country, and what constitutes sacrifice, in a different light.
Such views about the nature of sacrifice have resonated around the country since the death of former National Football League star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan last month.
Tillman gave up a multimillion-dollar contract and left behind a new wife to become a member of the Army's elite 75th Ranger Regiment. He fought in Iraq last year before being sent to Afghanistan.
But was what Tillman did before his death a sacrifice, or a personal choice to meet an obligation to his country?
Morris believes it was a matter of choice.
"He had so many options, and great options, but he chose to perform his duty, as he saw it, as that of a citizen," he said.
Tony Nunley, a retired Army Ranger first sergeant, agrees.
Tillman's death "is a tragic story," said Nunley, a former professor of military science at North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega. "I think everybody who dies is a tragic story. Did he give up more than anybody else? You can debate that. I don't know if what he did is more of a sacrifice than an 18-year-old who leaves behind a fiancee, a mom and a dad back home and joins the Rangers."
Noblesse oblige
Tillman's decision harks back to a time when the rich and famous felt the obligation to serve in war, and enlisted or drafted notables served alongside common Joes.
Baseball great Ted Williams flew combat missions in both World War II and the Korean War. Future Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, Warren Spahn, Yogi Berra and Hank Greenberg were among scores of professional athletes who volunteered or were drafted for military service.
Even movie stars contributed to the war effort in combat or in training or propaganda films. Among the more famous to see combat were Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford and James Stewart.
Before Tillman, the last pro athlete to die in combat was Bob Kalsu, an offensive tackle for the Buffalo Bills, who was killed by mortar fire during the Vietnam War.
During Vietnam, though the draft was supposed to spread the sacrifice and suffering across the political and socio-economic strata, the well-heeled and well-connected still managed to avoid military duty.
The all-volunteer force now makes military service even less democratic, Morris said, because only those exhibiting a sense of patriotism and obligation to society, or seeking government-funded education and training beyond high school, are likely to consider military service.
In World War I and II, "people had more of a sense of duty to their country," said Nunley, who fought with the Rangers in Grenada and Panama. "It was what we needed to do. Now it's like, 'We have an Army and let's let them do it.' The country as a whole doesn't support it. We don't have that unity. We don't have that bond."
Sacrifice was a national trait in the first and second world wars, he added. Now it is something others do.
"The only people who understand sacrifice today are those who have sacrificed. The average person doesn't see it," Nunley said.
'Selflessness' nurtured
The Army considers sacrifice one of its seven core values, but uses the term "selflessness" or "selfless service," said Col. Tom Kolditz, head of the Behavior Science and Leadership Program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
"What we're trying to instill in cadets is not so much personal sacrifice, but putting unit, mission and needs of the nation ahead of their own personal concerns," Kolditz said.
People say Tillman had that sense of selflessness, a trait similar to what researchers have found in others who recently fought in Iraq, Kolditz said.
That runs contrary to post-World War II findings. In a 1946 study, soldiers fresh from combat were asked their most important motivation. The primary factor named was not patriotism or ideology, said Kolditz, but unit cohesion, or allegiance to the buddies next to them.
In his 1985 book "War," Gwynne Dyer examined what motivated men to fight and found much the same thing.
"Very few men have died in battle, when the moment actually arrived, for the United States of America or for the sacred cause of Communism, or even for their homes and families," Dyer wrote. "If they had any choice in the matter at all, they chose to die for each other and for their own vision of themselves."
Arguably, Tillman had a vision of what he could and should do for his country. He shared his motivations with few people, but there is reason to believe he saw himself as a warrior and defender of his country.
Kolditz said he participated in a study in Iraq last year that suggested "soldiers now seem to think a little bit more about the moral consequences of their service."
Whether it was ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, freeing the Iraqi people or making the world safe from terrorism, Kolditz said, soldiers now value "being a part of something bigger than themselves. In this particular war, they are interested in contributing something they think will make the world a better place."
Kin 'grieve equally'
Largely because of Tillman's prominence in a celebrity-obsessed culture, his death has attracted more attention than those of the more than 700 other troops who have met their end in Iraq. But that should not make his death more significant, said Steve Thomas, a spokesman for the American Legion.
"The families grieve equally, and the celebrity of one honored dead shouldn't minimize the other losses. In fact, it should heighten the awareness of the totality of the sacrifice to democratize Iraq," Thomas said.
Tillman may have been a celebrity who preferred to be an anonymous soldier in life. But in death he may have become a symbol.
Nunley said Tillman's fellow Rangers "were delighted somebody that already was making the money he was making decided he wanted this challenge. We thought maybe people would finally get it."
That remains to be seen. Selflessness or self-sacrifice, said the Army's Kolditz, can take time to become fully embedded in an individual's character. "I think what happens then is that it's just a matter of recognizing when you feel it's your time to give back. Tillman felt it was his time to give back."
If nothing else, said Thomas, the American Legion spokesman, Tillman's death in combat "reminds Americans who might not otherwise think of it what it means to put on the uniform and take that oath. They're all heroes, every one of them. "