Thursday, December 11, 2008

Outside reading (Eisenhower)

Eisenhower was a Commanding Officer (CO) during World War I. He achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel at age 28. Eisenhower was twenty-eight years old when World War had ended. Along with the end of the war came the shrink of the army and Eisenhower's rank. He was demoted to captain, but later was promoted to major (Ambrose 67). This is obviously demeaning, as he had earned that rank, but had lost it for no apparent reason. I find this weird and unnecessary. Eisenhower worked with multiple generals that would influence his life, like Fox Conner, John Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and George C. Marshall (Ambrose 73). MacArthur would be the most influential. So Eisenhower would gain more power and skill as he further progressed until he became a general himself. He made an ethical choice by putting his country first, instead of working specifically for himself. Every decision he would make would be an ethical choice, as he is directing the lives of multiple men.

2 comments:

Shane I. said...

I don't understand how a person can get demoted. I agree with you that it is weird and unecessary. Also I can see how MacArthur would be the most influential of all those generals because I did a report on him a couple years ago, and he was a very intelligent and strategic general.

Vivian H said...

I agree with you and Shane about the randomly unnecessary demotion, it does seem rather odd. I think that the fact that MacArthur was an influence is interesting because MacArthur also was demoted, although not without reason, but I think that's a parallel you could have mentioned in your post.