I used "scrubbed-up" as a gentler version of "sanitized" - a characteristic, partly necessary, of the kind of analysis that's done from 35,000 feet. The human juices tend to be omitted. No mention, for instance, of the wives coping with children in the absence of professionally military husbands on long TDYs (temporary duty); social issues generally, although the institutions were dealing with them all the time. (US Navy policies and institutions on the care of dependents were the envy of Air Force and Army families.)
One could reasonably argue that such considerations don't belong in a book like Huntington's, but I agree with the Second Wave Feminist historians that leaving things like that unmentioned, much less unconsidered, is analytically and morally unsound.
Had my father read the book, he would have held up General Terhune (CINCNORAD in the story) as the epitome of what Huntington was writing about, and Curtis LeMay as an unfortunate human being, whatever his other qualifications.
Interesting. How was it scrubbed up?
I used "scrubbed-up" as a gentler version of "sanitized" - a characteristic, partly necessary, of the kind of analysis that's done from 35,000 feet. The human juices tend to be omitted. No mention, for instance, of the wives coping with children in the absence of professionally military husbands on long TDYs (temporary duty); social issues generally, although the institutions were dealing with them all the time. (US Navy policies and institutions on the care of dependents were the envy of Air Force and Army families.)
And this extends to the officers themselves and their careers. As an example, I offer "Col Okie in the Lion's Den" <https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryStories/comments/45bvz4/colonel_okie_in_the_lions_den/>, an extract from my father's autobiography, anonymized for a subreddit for combat veterans working out their PTSD.
One could reasonably argue that such considerations don't belong in a book like Huntington's, but I agree with the Second Wave Feminist historians that leaving things like that unmentioned, much less unconsidered, is analytically and morally unsound.
Had my father read the book, he would have held up General Terhune (CINCNORAD in the story) as the epitome of what Huntington was writing about, and Curtis LeMay as an unfortunate human being, whatever his other qualifications.
Thanks much! Brad