Military History

Conrad Angelo Utanes Jr., known as "CJ" to friends and family, had a passion for the guitar and the Beatles, military history and strategy games, and his trademark long hair, which he dubbed "my pride." The Dulaney High School senior also had a goal - documented as far back as his third- and fifth-grade years - to join the U.S. Army. That desire, no matter how much his parents balked, never changed. "Dad, you know that I'm not cut out for college," Conrado G. Utanes recalled his son saying.

The collection and preservation of war relics from the 18th century to the Persian Gulf war -- specifically conflicts that engaged the Maryland National Guard -- was the lifelong passion of retired Brig. Gen. Bernard Feingold of the Guard.General Feingold, who created the Maryland National Guard Museum at Baltimore's 5th Regiment Armory and later was its director and curator, died Thursday of cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 76.A former soldier with an insatiable curiosity and appreciation for the minutiae as well as the grand sweep of war, General Feingold possessed vast knowledge of military history, tactics, battles and personalities.

WASHINGTON -- Suppose. Suppose the car had hit the pedestrian slightly harder.What car? The one on Fifth Avenue the evening of Dec. 13, 1931, when an English politician on a lecture tour momentarily forgot the American rules of the road and looked the wrong way when stepping into the street.Winston Churchill could have died.Then, perhaps in 1940 or 1941, a prime minister less resolute and inspiriting than Churchill might have chosen to come to terms with Germany before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It was the view from the overlook, 150 feet above the entrance to New York Harbor, that led the British government to fortify this hill. Look south and you could see 30 miles into the Atlantic. Look east and you could see to the rolling hills of Brooklyn. Look north and see the southern tip of Manhattan.Signal Hill they called it, because from its top you could pass a message in three directions with a single flare.That view will be a key attraction when Fort Wadsworth, the 226-acre military installation occupying the hill and the banks below, opens to the public in May. The 300-year-old fort, which never fired a shot in anger, will become the newest national park.

My offering for Black History Month this year comes from a white male, if for no other reason than to show that BHM is not exclusively a black thing, as its detractors would have you believe. The truth, is Americans of every hue can learn from BHM.Offering the history lesson is one Jack Flanagan of Severna Park, whose list of credits includes being secretary and historian of the 612th Tank Destroyer Battalion Association, vice president of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, a member of the Baltimore Round Table of American Military History and past president of the Baltimore Civil War Round Table.

They traveled across the Western frontier, fighting rustlers and bandits to protect the nation's territories. But Houston Douglas Wedlock's great-great-uncle and other Buffalo Soldiers never reached most American history books.To correct that, Mr. Wedlock of Columbia's Long Reach village offers educational programs about his uncle, Charles Davis, and other members of the decorated all-black cavalry and infantry units.The trucking company safety manager is the only Howard County member of the Baltimore chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers Association.

Chicago. -- President Clinton emitted the wrong signal (as usual) when he responded to the new call for ending affirmative action. He said he would rethink the program. This is like his pre-emptive surrender on school prayer when the Republicans were not even pushing it.Of course, affirmative action should be reassessed and improved, like any other policy. But those who claim that there is no longer a need for affirmative action do not see how useful and beneficial it has been -- despite obvious exceptions, failures and exaggerations.

I'm surprised nobody has raised a fuss about one of the mos blatant examples of discrimination in the military services.No, I'm not talking about the ban on gays, which is being thoroughly explored by Congress, the White House and the nation's talk shows.And not women in combat, either. That has already become an issue, with some feminists demanding that women be equal-opportunity occupants of foxholes.I'm talking about age discrimination -- judging someone not on what he can do but how many years have passed since his birth.

IT DOESN'T TAKE A HERO.H. Norman Schwarzkopf.with Peter Petre.Linda Grey/Bantam Books.530 pages. $25. Two months before he would launch the greatest U.S. military offensive since the Vietnam War, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf had, by his own recollection, worked himself up "into a ferocious state" while meeting with the 22 American generals and admirals under his command.Standing before a huge map of Kuwait and Iraq, the bearish commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command outlined the battle plan for a U.S.-led attack against Iraqi forces and handed out combat assignments.

THE STORY of Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer had a certain deja-vu-all-over-again quality. It might as easily have been the story of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich or Sgt. Miriam Ben Shalom or one of several other soldiers whose job histories included decorations, promotions, excellent evaluations.For Colonel Cammermeyer, the honors included a Bronze Star for her work as a nurse in Vietnam and recognition as the Veterans Administration Nurse of the Year. None of it made any difference when she was dismissed from the Washington State National Guard, one of thousands of Americans whose exemplary service has paled beside the military's determination to boot gay soldiers.

Conrad Angelo Utanes Jr., known as "CJ" to friends and family, had a passion for the guitar and the Beatles, military history and strategy games, and his trademark long hair, which he dubbed "my pride." The Dulaney High School senior also had a goal - documented as far back as his third- and fifth-grade years - to join the U.S. Army. That desire, no matter how much his parents balked, never changed. "Dad, you know that I'm not cut out for college," Conrado G. Utanes recalled his son saying.

One captain in the Marine Corps had to sign the confining orders to send a lesbian to jail, but was so disturbed that the next day the officer, who was also gay, submitted his resignation papers. Another man, from the Naval Academy Class of 1958, was kicked out of the military because his name was found in the address book of a "known homosexual." Other gay men and lesbians left the service because like Steve Clark Hall, a nuclear submarine captain who retired after a 20-year Navy career, they could no longer bear the burden of harboring an enormous secret about their identity.

President Bush said Monday that the Iraq war is "straining the psyche of our country." What country is he talking about? The United States? If that's what the president thinks, he ought to get out of the house a little more. Unless you're in the military, or related to someone who is, the only strain you're feeling from this war is - what? - the price of gasoline maybe? We have a great divide in this country - between the military culture and the civilian culture, and it has never been more pronounced than it is right now. If the war has affected anyone's psyche in this country, it's the thousands of troops we've sent to Iraq and to Afghanistan - and the Marines who will be forced into active duty again, some of them after multiple tours.

The barrel-chested officer and the spry colonel beside him stride forward with grim military purpose, chins thrust forward as if they're leading a division into battle. As drawn by Richard Yardley, The Sun's late longtime cartoonist, the two commanders, Thomas McNeal and Roger Whiteford, exude the gravitas you would expect of the leaders of Baltimore's 175th Infantry Regiment - a unit that had contributed mightily to the Allied victory in Normandy 11 years before. Richard Yardley's National Guard cartoons will be on display at the Maryland Museum of Military History at the 5th Regiment Armory, 219 29th Division St., through December.

Sprinkled around Washington's Dupont Circle neighborhood are some of the city's lesser-known museums. They are not lesser museums, by any means. But it is difficult to stand out in the shadow of the Smithsonian. So these institutions go about their daily business, relatively unnoticed by the packs of tourists that crowd the city's other museums. The staffs of these collections are far from alone, however. Residents from the area learned long ago the joys of walking through the Dupont Circle neighborhood, meandering among the embassies, art galleries and private homes, to stop and visit these small gems.

Mike Eilerman, a former Marine who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, said he's noticed a difference in his son since Ryan joined the Jarrettsville Young Marines a year and a half ago. "It's making a better person out of him," Eilerman said. "I can see a big difference out of him. For 11 years old, he's very mature. I think it has to do with the discipline and the things he's learned." As a member of the Young Marines, Ryan, a sixth-grader at Mountain Christian School near Fallston, endured a 26-hour boot camp, is learning about military history and flag etiquette, and has gone on several camping trips.

On this Veterans Day, a new 18,000-square- foot exhibition devoted to the story of American wars opens at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Called The Price of Freedom: Americans at War, the exhibition celebrates "the service and sacrifice of generations of American men and women." "The exhibition tells how Americans have fought to establish the nation's independence, determine its boundaries, shape its values of freedom and opportunity and define its role in world affairs," says Brent D. Glass, the museum's director, in his foreword to the 96-page book accompanying the exhibition.

Charles Robert Fisher, a retired professor of military history whose colorful lectures brought to life for generations of University of Baltimore students not only the diplomatic and political events that lead to wars but also the traits of those who fought them, died Monday of complications from a stroke at a hospital in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Taneytown resident was 76. "He was a great influence on his students and not only a credit to the military but...

Today we're playing a game called "Name That War." See if you can identify the following scenario: The world's reigning superpower, fed up with the despotic ruler of an Islamic nation in the globe's most strategically crucial region, decides to cook up a war to depose him, despite advice to the contrary by its own intelligence officers. A well-connected corporation that does business in the region is all for it, of course, and as the shooting commences the superpower declares that its goal is to secure freedom and happiness for the despot's beleaguered subjects.

John Lewis Lee Jr., a retired Army colonel and Bronze Star-decorated veteran of three wars, died of heart failure Sept. 1 at Multi-Medical Center in Towson. The Roland Park resident was 78. He was born and raised in Baltimore, and as a child living on Division Street had a paper route that included as a customer Thurgood Marshall, an eventual Supreme Court justice. Colonel Lee graduated in 1943 from Carver Vocational-Technical High School, and enlisted that year in the Army Air Forces - a decision that would lead to more than 30 years of military service, including World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.