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The Battle Of Luzon, Part 4: Victory And Aftermath

American General

Douglas MacArthur

History

Japan

Pacific Ocean

Philippines

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

U.S. Navy

World War II

To truly appreciate the tragedy that unfolded in Manila in 1945, one must consider that up until then the city had been nicknamed “The Pearl of the Orient.” Historian James Scott offers: “In the four decades leading up to World War II, Manila developed into a small slice of America in Asia, home not only to thousands of U.S. service members, but employees of companies like General Electric, Del Monte, and B.F. Goodrich. The city boasted a great quality of life, with department stores and social clubs, golf courses and swimming pools, all in a tropical setting, and at a fraction of the cost of living in the United States.”
Then in December 1941, the Japanese came.
Filthy, ragged, half-starved U.S. prisoners were paraded through the streets of Manila after their 1942 surrender. The sight of their more physically imposing former protectors being ignominiously herded along by diminutive Japanese soldiers was disillusioning. “Filipinos stood and watched in an agony of embarrassment,” recalled Manila journalist Nick Joaquin. “These were the God blessed Americans, supposedly invincible. Now here they were: mighty giants being herded rudely by little Jap soldiers. We would never recover from that loss of innocence.”
For the unlucky POWs, however, their three-year nightmare of criminally sadistic captivity was just beginning. 3,700 U.S. civilians were also caught up in the invasion; they would languish in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they desperately ate dogs, cats, pigeons, rats, insects, anything to survive. On the eve of their liberation, the civilian prisoners starved to death at a rate of three to four per day. (MacArthur’s Philippine guerilla network informed him of this, hence his relentless drive to keep moving).
Believing their new Filipino subjects to be an inferior race, the Emperor’s troops had no qualms about looting food supplies and stores, while stealing vital farm equipment which left fields to rot. By the third year of Japanese occupation — with the exception of Japan’s puppet Filipino government officials and collaborators — starvation was rampant, killing some 500 civilians per day. Hordes of beggars roamed the streets; some went so far as to dig up graves to rob jewelry, watches, anything that could be bartered for a fistful of rice. Parents unable to feed their children might abandon or even sell them. (U.S. intelligence reported that by 1944, it cost less to buy a Filipino child than a hog).
<div id="attachment_856933" style="width: 719px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856933" class="wp-image-856933 " src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-710x576.jpeg" alt="General MacArthur visits the ruins of the Manila hotel that was his pre-war home on Luzon, 23 February 1945. He is accompanied by Colonel James Corbett and two infantrymen, one armed with an M1 rifle. Photograph from the Army Signal Corps Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="709" height="575" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-710x576.jpeg 710w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168-300x243.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/SC-202168.jpeg 740w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px" />General MacArthur visits the ruins of the Manila hotel that was his pre-war home on Luzon, 23 February 1945. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
On February 3, 1945, U.S. troops entered the capital. But they did not find an open city. Instead they faced a fortified urban center they would have to take block-by-block, street-by-street, even house-by-house. This came as a rude shock to their five-star commander. Having thoroughly outmaneuvered his enemy, MacArthur expected there to be few if any Japanese left in the area. Other than its sprawling port facilities, which could be demolished before evacuation to deny them to the Americans, the city held no strategic value, as MacArthur himself concluded in 1941 when he abandoned Manila for the more defensible jungle terrain of Bataan, declaring it an open city. Therefore, the notion that Yamashita, a first-rate commander, would choose to defend Manila perplexed him — and then, as the destruction and carnage mounted, infuriate him. But MacArthur’s assumptions had been correct; the Tiger of Malaya had no intention of fighting for the Philippine capital. 
Yamashita, however, was dealing with a problem that plagued the Japanese High Command throughout the war. That was the intense rivalry, even downright disdain, between the Imperial Army and Navy top brass. In the case of Manila, while Yamashita pulled most of his army troops out of the city before it was surrounded, some 20,000 Japanese sailors under the command of Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi remained behind to destroy Manila’s harbor.
Although still technically under Yamashita’s command, Iwabuchi and his men didn’t see it that way. They vowed to make a stand, spending the weeks prior to the enemy’s arrival throwing up hasty fortifications, sowing landmines, constructing pillboxes and tank traps. When the Americans approached, the Japanese in the besieged capital opted to get drunk and fight to the death. 
And the atrocities began.
<div id="attachment_856963" style="width: 717px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856963" class="wp-image-856963 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-707x576.jpeg" alt="Liberation of Manila, 1945. Stretcher party brings out a wounded U.S. soldier, following an attack by U.S. troops to liberate Filipino prisoners in the walled city, 23 February 1945. Note wrecked buildings. Catalog #: 80-G-273406. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="707" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-707x576.jpeg 707w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-300x244.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406-768x626.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-273406.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 707px) 100vw, 707px" />Stretcher party brings out a wounded U.S. soldier, following an attack by U.S. troops to liberate Filipino prisoners in the walled city, 23 February 1945. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
In a mid-February letter to his wife, Gen. Eichelberger wrote with grim understatement, “I hear the big parade has been called off.” In fact, it would have been impossible to march down any Manila street as no thoroughfare would be free of debris and corpses, mostly civilians. By the time the last shot was fired, the Pearl of the Orient would be reduced to a smoldering heap of rubble, whose gutters ran red with the blood of innocents.
It is impossible to adequately describe the horrors the Filipinos endured. Men were bound and shot, bayoneted or mutilated en masse, while patients were strapped to hospital beds before the buildings were set ablaze. Females of every age were brutally gang-raped before being systematically murdered. Babies were tossed in the air and skewered on bayonets by sadistic Japanese who smeared the children’s eyeballs on walls like jelly.
Filipina survivor Carmen Guerrero Nakpil remembered: “It was like a scene from hell. We were running like rats. I saw my classmates dragged through the streets to be raped by the Japanese in the Bayview Hotel. I saw my neighbors cut down by sniper bullets. The killing was terrible.”
<div id="attachment_856917" style="width: 708px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856917" class="size-large wp-image-856917" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-698x576.jpg" alt="20th March 1945: American soldiers watching as refugees pick their way through the debris of North Manila, after safely arriving in the American held part of the city while fighting continues elsewhere. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)" width="698" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-698x576.jpg 698w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-300x248.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974-768x634.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3139974.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 698px) 100vw, 698px" />20th March 1945: American soldiers watching as refugees pick their way through the debris of North Manila, after safely arriving in the American held part of the city while fighting continues elsewhere. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)</div>
When the Japanese burst into the LaSalle chapel, Jose and Juanita Carlos were hiding in the cellar with their children. Jose was dragged off and killed. Then they came back for the rest of the family. Sixteen-year-old Dionisia was bayoneted until unconscious. When she came too she looked for her family. She found her mother and nine-year-old sister and six-year-old brother bayoneted to death, and her nineteen-year-old sister shot dead.
Although it has been claimed that it was a spontaneous eruption of violence against the Filipinos upon whom rogue Imperial troops took out their rage for siding with the Americans (and fear as death closed in), captured Japanese records show that, as with Nanking, the massacre was officially sanctioned, even encouraged. One order went so far as to give explicit instructions on how to commit mass murder: “When Filipinos are to be killed, they must be gathered into one place and disposed of with the consideration that ammunition and manpower must not be used to excess. Because the disposal of dead bodies is a troublesome task, they should be gathered into houses which are scheduled to be burned or demolished. They should also be thrown into the river.”
And yet, throughout the carnage of what has been called the “Pacific Stalingrad”, courageous Filipinos risked their lives braving sniper fire and shell bursts to fill canteens and bring ammunition and food to the Americans hunkered down in the wreckage.
<div id="attachment_856915" style="width: 736px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856915" class="size-large wp-image-856915" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-726x576.jpg" alt="February 1945: A Filipino guerrilla fighting Japanese forces of occupation in Manila. Lacking a tripod for his machine-gun, he has tied the weapon to a fire hydrant. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)" width="726" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-726x576.jpg 726w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-300x238.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992-768x609.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3241992.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px" />February 1945: A Filipino guerrilla fighting Japanese forces of occupation in Manila. Lacking a tripod for his machine-gun, he has tied the weapon to a fire hydrant. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)</div>
Despite MacArthur’s repeated calls for the Japanese to surrender, they resisted with suicidal desperation while the American commander anguished over the destruction of the once beautiful city. GIs accustomed to fighting in jungles and beaches had to quickly learn the ways of deadly urban warfare, in which every floor of every building, every stairwell, even closets, were bitterly contested. It was a brutal, often hand-to-hand, form of combat the likes of which had not been seen in the Pacific before, made all the more difficult by the number of civilians.
The Americans, wielding rifles, grenades, satchel charges, flamethrowers, sometimes even rocks and spades, eventually cornered the remaining Japanese in the one-quarter-square-mile fortress of Intramuros, whose walls, twenty-five feet high and forty feet thick, had withstood maritime raiders and earthquakes since the 1570s. General Kenney wanted to bomb the citadel, but MacArthur, aware that many civilians were trapped within, denied his requests, especially the use of napalm. But he did allow the big guns to fire on the holdouts. (In the end, the shelling was so destructive it didn’t really matter.) Eventually the guns breached the walls and the Japanese, including the recalcitrant Iwabuchi, were wiped out or committed ritual suicide.
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With tactics in the capable hands of his field commanders, MacArthur set out to visit the liberated Santo Tomas and Bilibid prison camps. The conditions of the internees horrified him. He was especially moved by the military captives at Bilibid, who made pathetic attempts to stand at attention. In his memoirs he wrote: “Here was all that was left of my men of Bataan and Corregidor…As I passed slowly down the scrawny, suffering column, a murmur accompanied me as each man barely speaking above a whisper, said ‘You’re back,’ or ‘You made it’…I could only reply, ‘I’m a little late, but we finally came.’”
<div id="attachment_856923" style="width: 934px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856923" class="size-large wp-image-856923" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-924x576.jpg" alt="American soldiers who were part of the liberation of the Japanese Bilibid POW camp stop to talk with two internees who had been in the prison camp for two years, Manila, Philippines, February 11, 1945. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)" width="924" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-924x576.jpg 924w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-300x187.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359-768x479.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-563522359.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" />American soldiers who were part of the liberation of the Japanese Bilibid POW camp stop to talk with two internees who had been in the prison camp for two years, Manila, Philippines, February 11, 1945. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)</div>
By the time the 29-day fight for Manila was over, and every last Japanese killed, the city had been utterly annihilated with some 11,000 buildings reduced to ruins and ash. 70% of the utilities, 75% of the factories, 80% of the southern residential district and the entire business district had been razed. Of all the Allied cities, only Nanking and Warsaw saw such destruction and civilian carnage. No one will ever know for sure but it is estimated that 100,000 Filipinos died at the hands of the enraged Japanese.
On March 4, 1945, Manila was officially declared secured. The smoking Philippine capital had been liberated, but at a horrific cost to the city and its bewildered inhabitants. CBS News correspondent Bill Dunn would reflect on the tragedy, summing up the horrible effects of war: “The Manila of 1941 was a unique Manila, a Manila that had never existed before, a Manila that would never exist again.”
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Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
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Manila Harbour

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 3: The Massacre Of Manila

In planning the battle for Luzon, MacArthur would have liked to surprise his waiting opponent. But Yamashita understood that Lingayen Gulf offered the only approach to the central Luzon plain, on which U.S. tanks could maneuver most effectively. It also had the best road and rail networks approaching Manila. Although he initially stationed 36,000 troops to cover the 22 miles of landing beaches, Yamashita conceded that U.S. naval firepower would just scythe his men down on the shoreline. And despite his public bravura, the Japanese commander knew that, with Halsey’s and Kinkaid’s U.S. fleets now masters of the sea, and Kenney’s planes filling the skies, the best he could really hope for was a holding action through a defense in depth to give the home islands time to prepare for the inevitable invasion. 
So, in December 1944, he withdrew his men and headquarters, along with members of Tokyo’s puppet Philippine government, headed by the controversial President José Laurel, into the more defensible terrain around the Philippine summer capital of Baguio, 30 miles east of Lingayen and 150 miles north of Manila.
<div id="attachment_856493" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856493" class="size-large wp-image-856493" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-740x576.jpg" alt="Battle line entering the Lingayen Gulf. The USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) leads the USS Colorado (BB-45), USS Louisville (CA-28), USS Portland (CA-33), and USS Columbia (CL-56) in a battle line entering the Lingayen Gulf preceding the landing off Luzon in the Philippines in January 1945. Catalog #: 80-G-59525. National Archives &amp; Records Administration." width="740" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-740x576.jpg 740w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-300x233.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525-768x598.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-59525.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />National Archives &amp; Records Administration.</div>
At dawn on January 9, 1945, code-named &#8220;S-Day,&#8221; the enormous U.S. fleet — the largest of any landings in the Pacific and equal to the American contingent at Normandy — lay to in Lingayen Gulf and over 800 anchors splashed into the unusually calm waters. It was an awesome display of U.S. industrial might. At 0700, the big guns of some 70 battleships and cruisers roared, sending shells of all calibers whistling down onto what turned out to be undefended beaches. Beginning at 0930, the first of 175,000 troops of Gen. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army waded ashore while Gen. Robert Eichelberger’s smaller Eighth Army was held in reserve. 
<div id="attachment_856503" style="width: 722px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856503" class="size-large wp-image-856503" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-712x576.jpg" alt="Coast Guard-manned landing barges bringing troops to the beaches of Lingayen Gulf during World War Two, Luzon, Philippines, circa January 7th 1945. (Photo by US Coast Guard/Getty Images)" width="712" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-712x576.jpg 712w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-300x243.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859-768x621.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-507339859.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px" />US Coast Guard/Getty Images</div>
By the end of the day, the GIs would push eight miles inland. Only the occasional Kamikaze air and even suicide boat attacks, with sporadic artillery rounds warbling in from distant enemy gun positions, disturbed the otherwise smooth operations.
Once four of Kruger’s divisions made it ashore and began to press inland, MacArthur left his headquarters on the light cruiser USS Boise and headed in. Filipino peasants waving U.S. and Philippine flags joyfully greeted the Americans, while others raced ahead to spread the word that after over 1,200 days of Japanese rule, MacArthur had returned as promised, and their deliverance was finally at hand.
<div id="attachment_856693" style="width: 725px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856693" class="wp-image-856693 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-715x576.jpeg" alt="Lingayen Gulf Landings, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur and staff leaving USS BOISE (CL-47) on 9 January 1945 to go ashore on the Lingayen Gulf beaches, Luzon Philippine Islands. Catalog #: 80-G-304340. National Archive. Naval History and Heritage Command" width="715" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-715x576.jpeg 715w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-300x242.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340-768x619.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-304340.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 715px) 100vw, 715px" />Lingayen Gulf Landings, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur and staff leaving USS BOISE (CL-47) on 9 January 1945 to go ashore on the Lingayen Gulf beaches, Luzon Philippine Islands. National Archive. Naval History and Heritage Command</div>
The central Luzon plain, the amphitheater in which Krueger’s army would be maneuvering, was roughly 40 miles wide and ran some 110 miles due south from Lingayen to Manila Bay. It was walled in on each side by high, rugged peaks blanketed under a thick layer of jungle vegetation. It provided ideal terrain for flying columns to advance quickly down the fine roads leading to Manila.
MacArthur had earned the epithet “Dugout Dug” on this island in 1942 when he rarely ventured from his headquarters in Corregidor’s Malinta Tunnel to visit the front lines during the bitter struggle to hold Bataan. But now the General was, quite literally, often out in front leading the GIs and tankers in their advance south. No doubt invigorated by the prospect of reaching his beloved city of Manila, he raced around the battlefield in his five-star-studded Jeep like a man decades younger. At one moment he could be found perched on the turret of a tank ascertaining Japanese positions. Other times up in a B-17 watching a parachute jump. Once when confronted by an enemy roadblock and a Nambu machine gun opened up, a flummoxed lieutenant shouted to him, “We’re going after those fellows, but please, sir, get down; we’re under fire!” Another time, while inspecting the lines of the 161st Infantry regiment, they were suddenly attacked by Japanese tanks and the lines buckled. In conduct reminiscent of his days leading the Rainbow Division over the top in the First World War, the highest-ranking general in the Pacific Theater personally rallied the troops who beat back the assault, earning him his third Silver Star.
Although courageous to the point of being reckless, there most likely was a method to MacArthur’s madness. It was to goad the cautious Krueger to move faster as he suspected, correctly, that Yamashita had opted to withdraw into the rugged mountains east of Lingayen to let the Americans come to him in time. Thus, he saw no need for caution. But Krueger feared a screaming host of Japanese might come charging down from the mountains to puncture his left flank, cutting him off from the beachhead to his rear, and, in Romulo’s words, “slicing him up like a pie.” But for a frustrated MacArthur, who justifiably feared Japanese reprisals against POWs and Filipino civilians alike, speed was everything. “Get to Manila!” he exhorted his commanders. “Go around the Japs. Bounce off the Japs. Save your men, but get to Manila!”
<div id="attachment_856567" style="width: 733px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856567" class="wp-image-856567 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-723x576.jpeg" alt="Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, USA Commander Sixth Army, on board PT-525, off Leyte Island, the Philippines, 23 October 1944. The boat was taking General MacArthur ashore at the time. Catalog #: 80-G-258490. National Archives. Original Date: Mon, Oct 23, 1944. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="723" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-723x576.jpeg 723w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-300x239.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490-768x612.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-258490.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" />Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN, Commander Seventh Fleet, and Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, USA Commander Sixth Army, on board PT-525, off Leyte Island, the Philippines, 23 October 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
While Kruger was directing his Sixth Army in their fight to capture the enormous complex of runways and installations that made up Clark Field, his commander unleashed his reserves in a series of rapid thrusts elsewhere that confounded his Japanese opponent. Due to the Mindoro landing, Yamashita had to contend with the possibility of an attack from the south. So he sent part of his army to shore up defenses below Manila. As such, the landings in Lingayen caught every Japanese column in motion.
On January 31, MacArthur put a division of paratroopers from Eichelberger’s Eighth Army ashore at Nasugbu, 40 miles south of Manila. The landings were virtually unopposed as Col. Masatoshi Fujishige, upon whose shoulders the defense of the area had been entrusted, had placed his troops in defensive positions closer to Mindoro. In a scene reminiscent of the Allied advance through Holland, civilians cheered their American saviors, gifting them with food and spirits, and covering their vehicles in flowers until they resembled victorious Roman chariots.
Meanwhile, the General landed another corps at Subic Bay west of Manila above Bataan, and with minimal losses captured the valuable port of Olongapo while hitting the bewildered Yamashita with another regiment at Mariveles on the southern tip of the peninsula, trapping the Japanese troops in a double envelopment. Bataan, on which the Americans and Filipinos held out for months in 1942, fell in seven days. By the end of January, Manila was surrounded.
The most difficult Japanese nut to crack should have been the 5,000 Imperial soldiers stationed on the island bastion of Corregidor in the mouth of Manila Bay. With exquisite timing, paratroopers descended on the island’s “topside” while GIs stormed the “bottomside” beaches. After a week of fighting, the remaining defenders blew themselves up in the Malinta Tunnel. Although the Japanese lost twice their initial landing force taking the island in 1942, the Americans suffered fewer than 300 KIA (50 in the final explosion).
<div id="attachment_856583" style="width: 759px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856583" class="size-large wp-image-856583" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-749x576.jpg" alt="16th February 1945: American paratroops of the 503rd Regiment (Parachute Regiment) drop on the bomb-shattered terrain of the island of Corregidor in the Philippines. The air warriors quickly seized batteries and defences, clearing the entrance to Manila Bay and opening the harbour to the Allied fleet. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="749" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-749x576.jpg 749w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-300x231.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792-768x590.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3225792.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px" />Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</div>
The landings and subsequent race to Manila from all sides had been a remarkable strategic enterprise, which earned the ardent praise of no less an astute observer than Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. George Marshall, who in his report would declare: “Yamashita’s inability to cope with MacArthur’s swift moves, and his desired reaction to the deception measures, combined to place the Japanese in an impossible situation.” The enemy, he went on, “was forced into a piecemeal commitment of his troops” which left the Agno River, a potential major defensive stronghold, lightly defended. MacArthur was able to neutralize Japanese numerical parity by compelling his opponent to split his forces and then scramble to attack with whatever units were in the zone of operations. The General himself would write in his memoirs with typical MacArthur braggadocio (though in this case justified) “Never had such large numbers of troops been so outmaneuvered…and left tactically impotent to take an active part in the final battle.”
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With Clark Field finally in the methodical Krueger’s hands after heavy fighting, as well as engineers clearing out booby traps the Japanese had sewn all over the installation, the Americans from both the north and south were poised to enter the capital.
It was now early February and the 1st Cavalry, the vanguard of 100,000 Americans pouring down Luzon’s main highways while the rest guarded the beachhead, had reached the suburbs of Manila. With the bulk of Yamashita’s forces nullified in the rugged terrain around Baguio, victory was in the air. The triumphant MacArthur, now at the threshold of all he’d been pushing towards for the past three years, was preparing a grand parade through Manila ala the Allies’ triumph down the Champs Élysées. The media celebrated. Newsweek reported: “Prize Of The Pacific, Manila, Fell To MacArthur Like A Ripened Plum!” Time magazine headlined its Philippine story “Victory! Mabuhay!” (Tagalog for “Hurrah!”).
But the headlines were shatteringly premature. In fact, before the fight for Luzon was over, the city of Manila would suffer one of the most cruel and heartbreaking tragedies of the Second World War.
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<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-battle-of-luzon-part-1-climax-of-the-southwest-pacific-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: The Battle Of Luzon, Part 1: Climax Of The Southwest Pacific War</a></h3>
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* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Correction: And earlier version of this article contained a photo of General Douglas MacArthur returning to the Philippines, wading through the water. MacArthur&#8217;s famous return took place in 1944 not in January of 1945. The image has been removed.

80-G-59525

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 2: Race To Manila

Inside the imperial palace in Tokyo, Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki stood uneasily before his Emperor Hirohito and apologized for the catastrophe that had just befallen his majesty’s army and navy at the hands of the Americans on and around the Philippine island of Leyte. In the fierce land and sea combat that lasted from October 17 to December 24, 1944, the backbone of the Japanese fleet, as well as some 65,000 troops and hundreds of aircraft, were erased from the order of battle. When the Emperor reminded Koiso that he’d promised Leyte would be a repeat of Japan’s 1582 victory at Tennozan, the prime minister sheepishly mumbled that Luzon, not Leyte, would be the Kentai Kessen, “decisive battle,” that would once and for all destroy the Americans and their allies advancing ever closer to the home islands.
Luzon was the main island in the Philippines archipelago, and site of the nation’s capital city Manila. Slightly larger than Cuba, it stretches some 460 miles running north-to-south, and sits roughly equidistant between Japan and Australia. If Japan could not fight off the Americans here and regain the initiative then the sea lanes between the home islands and her vital raw materials in the Dutch East Indies, which had been severed when Leyte was lost, would be forever cut off. And should Luzon fall, only the island bastions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa stood between the Allies and Japan.
<div id="attachment_855787" style="width: 726px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855787" class="size-large wp-image-855787" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-716x576.jpeg" alt="Leyte Invasion, October 1944. General Douglas Macarthur and Philippine president Sergio Osmena in a landing craft on their way to ceremonies proclaiming the liberation of Leyte, 23 October 1944. On the right is Brigadier General Carlos P. Romulo. Catalog #: 80-G-289537. National Archives. Mon, Oct 23, 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="716" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-716x576.jpeg 716w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-300x241.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537-768x618.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-289537.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px" />General Douglas MacArthur and Philippine president Sergio Osmena in a landing craft on their way to ceremonies proclaiming the liberation of Leyte, 23 October 1944. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
Bearing down on Luzon was an immense U.S. invasion force of over 800 ships, 3,000 landing craft — many just arrived from Normandy — and some 280,000 troops. This formidable army, fielding more men than Eisenhower landed at Sicily, was led by America’s most brilliant strategist, Five-Star General Douglas MacArthur. For two years this American Caesar had dazzled the Japanese with one victory upon the next in a relentless drive up New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea with the aim of recapturing the Philippines.
<div id="attachment_855769" style="width: 727px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855769" class="wp-image-855769 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-717x576.jpeg" alt="Carrier Raids on Formosa, October 1944. Crewmen on USS Hancock (CV-19) move 3.5-inch rockets (with 5-inch diameter warheads) to planes, while preparing for strikes on Formosa, 12 October 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.Catalog #: 80-G-281338. Naval History and Heritage Command. " width="717" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-717x576.jpeg 717w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-300x241.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338-768x617.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-281338.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px" />Carrier Raids on Formosa, October 1944. Crewmen on USS Hancock (CV-19). National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
Beginning in November 1942 with a grinding, bloody fight for Buna on New Guinea’s northern coast, MacArthur’s advances steadily accelerated. Utilizing amphibious thrusts by coordinating land, sea, and air power — what Churchill described as “triphibious warfare” — the general leapfrogged from beachhead to beachhead in ever more audacious envelopments up the world’s second largest island. Indeed, by the time his landing force steamed towards Leyte in October 1944, the first of the Philippine islands targeted for assault, MacArthur had captured more territory while suffering fewer casualties than any commander in modern warfare — while inflicting ten times as many losses on the enemy.
MacArthur now set his determined sights on the ultimate prize, Luzon, 300 miles north of Leyte. Waiting for him, however, was a Japanese garrison numbering some 270,000 determined troops, the largest enemy contingent the Americans would confront in the Pacific War. Moreover, the Emperor’s forces would be under the overall command of a formidable general in his own right, Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya.” On this most vital Philippine island, two gifted generals, each at the height of his power, would face off in the climactic battle of the Southwest Pacific campaign.
<div id="attachment_855827" style="width: 463px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855827" class="wp-image-855827 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-453x576.jpg" alt="circa 1945: Japanese army general Tomoyuki Yamashita uses a cane while walking along a dirt road ahead of several soldiers. Yamashita was known as the 'Tiger of Malaya' for his leadership of the Japanese forces against the British troops in the Philippines. (Photo by US Army/Getty Images)" width="453" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-453x576.jpg 453w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-236x300.jpg 236w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763-768x977.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3201763.jpg 805w" sizes="(max-width: 453px) 100vw, 453px" />Japanese army general Tomoyuki Yamashita. US Army/Getty Images.</div>
Although the primary aim of seizing Leyte in the fall of 1944 was to provide MacArthur an aerodrome from which Allied planes could cover his Luzon campaign, as well as stage raids on Formosa and the Chinese mainland, the soil proved to be unstable during the rainy season, which had just begun (24 inches of rain fell in November alone). Although some air bases were eventually operational, due to the soggy runways as well as washed out roads in need of constant repair, MacArthur’s air chief, General George Kenney, was unable to utilize the bulk of the island’s airstrips for the upcoming operations. Still, even with this unexpected setback, the imaginative MacArthur saw an opportunity.
The island of Mindoro, a mere hour-and-a-half ferry ride from Luzon and just 200 miles from Manila, offered ideal ground for Kenney’s aircraft. Adm. Chester Nimitz, MacArthur’s naval counterpart, agreed to support an operation to seize the island, with Adm. William “Bull” Halsey’s carrier task force providing vital top cover until Mindoro could be seized and converted into a land-based aerodrome. But the approach was dangerous. So perilous, in fact, that MacArthur’s reliable naval head, Adm. Thomas Kinkaid, vehemently opposed the landings as he feared his transports would be exposed to attacks from land-based enemy aircraft — especially the deadly Kamikaze suicide planes that made their debut at Leyte and whose attacks were growing in number and lethality — as the vulnerable convoy wiggled its way through the narrow waters of the Surigao Strait and Sulu Sea. Furthermore, should there be a significant number of Japanese on Mindoro, the operation could be costly, even repulsed. The Joint Chiefs in Washington, DC were also alarmed; the Pentagon declared MacArthur’s plan “too daring in scope, too risky in execution.”
But MacArthur’s sixth sense told him Yamashita had no stomach for another Leyte, but was instead husbanding his strength for the defense of Luzon. He also might have assumed that, just as his subordinates had been frightened by the hazards facing any convoy on the narrow approach to Mindoro, Yamashita would figure no enemy would risk such a passage. MacArthur’s contrarian instincts proved correct.
<div id="attachment_855783" style="width: 712px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855783" class="size-large wp-image-855783" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-702x576.jpeg" alt="Mindoro Operation, December 1944. Caption: Escort carriers of task group 77.12.7 getting under way from the Palau Islands, en route for the invasion of Mindoro, 10 December 1944. Photographed from USS KADASHAN BAY (CVE-76). Catalog #: 80-G-301022. National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command." width="702" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-702x576.jpeg 702w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-300x246.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022-768x630.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/80-G-301022.jpeg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px" />Mindoro Operation, December 1944. Photographed from USS KADASHAN BAY (CVE-76). National Archives. Naval History and Heritage Command.</div>
On December 16, 1944, 10,000 American troops raced from their Higgins boats and overwhelmed the barely 1,000 Japanese stationed on Mindoro; the GIs soon captured four abandoned airstrips. The U.S. suffered just 240 KIA (a mere 18 on the ground, the rest Naval losses from air attacks). And unlike Leyte, the ground here was solid. U.S. engineers went to work refurbishing the captured airfields and constructing two more. Overhead, Halsey’s pilots fended off waves of marauding Japanese fighters and suicide planes swooping down from Luzon. By New Years Day 1945, an ebullient Kenney declared Mindoro his main aerodrome, allowing MacArthur to once again operate under the protection of his land-based air force.
The capture of Mindoro, the last stepping stone to Luzon, also confronted Yamashita with the possibility that MacArthur could hit him from the south as well as the obvious landing spot in Lingayen Gulf 140 miles north of Manila. And he was now cut off from his garrisons in the southern Philippines.
<div id="attachment_855845" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855845" class="size-large wp-image-855845" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-864x576.jpg" alt="acprints. Getty Images." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-183023714-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />acprints. Getty Images.</div>
Yamashita’s motivations for defending the island were purely military. But for MacArthur, his return to the Philippines was a deeply personal crusade. He’d lived in the archipelago for many years and felt the U.S. had a solemn obligation to free a people over whom we’d assumed responsibility after wresting the islands from the Spanish in 1898. He had been in command of the joint US-Philippine army in December 1941 when the Japanese invaded. Abandoning the capital, he consolidated his forces on the Bataan Peninsula due west across Manila Bay, and the Island fortress of Corregidor covering the mouth of the inlet. The General had hoped to fight a holding action, anticipating a U.S. relief force would come to the rescue and save his command. 
In early 1942, however, Japan was at the zenith of its power while the U.S. was just getting on a war footing, and thus in no position to relieve the beleaguered defenders. In May 1942 a combined 75,000 ragged and malnourished American and Filipino troops surrendered. Although it had been a heroic if forlorn stand that upset the Japanese timetable, it was the largest capitulation of U.S. forces in history.
<div id="attachment_855835" style="width: 801px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-855835" class="size-large wp-image-855835" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-791x576.jpg" alt="May 1943: Premier Tojo arriving in Manila. He responds to the salute from General Waui Ehk of the Japanese Administration and the Commander of the Imperial Japanese Fleet (in the white uniform). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" width="791" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-791x576.jpg 791w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-300x219.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158-768x560.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-3272158.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px" />May 1943: Premier Tojo arriving in Manila. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.</div>
MacArthur believed his government had abandoned not just the brave garrison, but also the 18 million inhabitants of his beloved islands to a cruel occupier in the dark days of the war’s opening rampage of Japanese conquest following Pearl Harbor. He also felt an individual obligation to return as he’d been ordered by FDR to leave his doomed garrison and escape to Australia before the inevitable defeat, where he would organize the island continent’s defenses and then lead the eventual Allied counter-offensive in the Southwest Pacific. For almost three years, while American and Filipino captives languished in brutal captivity* and civilians endured privations and repressions, the Japanese military ruled the American protectorate.
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But now, to the jubilation of the Filipinos, who’d feared their islands would be bypassed in favor of a U.S. landing on Formosa farther to the north, and thus abandoned a second time, the Americans were back.
Carlos Romulo, the Philippine writer and diplomat who had been with MacArthur on Corregidor, was one of the General’s confidants. When in October he descended from the transport John Land to join the landing party of brass, politicians and war correspondents onto the barge headed for the beaches of Leyte, MacArthur embraced his friend. “Carlos, my boy, how does it feel to be home?” Two months later, the elated Romulo found himself in Lingayen Gulf amidst a vast Allied armada whose ships stretched out to the horizon. Thirty-seven agonizing months before, it had been a Japanese landing force in these waters. He recalled his “cold horror” when Manila Radio announced the news of Japanese transports in Lingayen. But now, he wrote with satisfaction, “it is their turn to quake.”
Meanwhile, following an interview with Yamashita who promised, “I shall write a brilliant history of The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere on the Philippine Islands”, Radio Tokyo confidently announced: “The battle for Luzon, in which 300,000 American officers and men are doomed to die, is about to begin.”
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* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id%3D55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3K_WhJtiUZw7LF1PwSIHtH">books</a>. Follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw02hy-lB4UuAlHo7FfD_FIQ">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/bschaeffer123&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1736518135479000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0P6pRoAqcBhUQ1W0qwN5rH">X/Twitter</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.
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NOTES:
<ol>
<li>In World War II some 40% of U.S. POWs died at the hands of the Japanese, as opposed to only 1% of those captured by the Germans.</li>
</ol>

NH 44317

The Battle Of Luzon, Part 1: Climax Of The Southwest Pacific War

American History

U.S. Navy veteran Harry Chandler, a medic who helped rescue injured service-members from the water during the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pearl-harbor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pearl Harbor</a> attack in 1941, died earlier this week at the age of 103. There are just 15 survivors of that devastating attack who now remain living.
Chandler, according to his grandson-in-law Ron Mahaffee, passed away in Florida at a senior living center, The Associated Press reported. It was also noted that while he had suffered from congestive heart failure, the cause of death was primarily attributed to his age.
&#8220;Pearl Harbor survivor Harry Chandler who passed away on Monday at the age of 103. Chandler was serving as a hospital corpsman 3rd class when the Japanese attacked on 7 Dec 1941. He boarded a boat and helped pull oil-covered sailors from the water,&#8221; the U.S. Naval Institute shared photos of Chandler on Wednesday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RIP</a> Pearl Harbor survivor Harry Chandler who passed away on Monday at the age of 103. Chandler was serving as a hospital corpsman 3rd class when the Japanese attacked on 7 Dec 1941. He boarded a boat and helped pull oil-covered sailors from the water. <a href="https://t.co/E97TtC3D4o">pic.twitter.com/E97TtC3D4o</a>
&mdash; U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) <a href="https://twitter.com/NavalInstitute/status/1874626263492760063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chandler was interviewed about his experience when he returned to the Hawaiian naval base in 2023 for the 82nd anniversary of the attack, and he said that even eight decades later, the events of that terrible morning were still fresh in his mind.
&#8220;I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,&#8221; he told The AP.
The Sunday morning of the attack, Chandler told the outlet that he was raising the flag over an Aiea Heights mobile hospital near the base when he saw the planes coming in.
&#8220;I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,&#8221; Chandler explained, adding, &#8220;I was afraid that they’d start strafing.&#8221;
Ignoring his first instinct, which he said was to &#8220;get the hell out of here,&#8221; he first boarded a truck down to the base and then a boat out to the burning and damaged destroyers and carriers in the water. Once there, he assisted other medics in pulling injured sailors from the harbor, many of them coated in oil.
&#8220;It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,&#8221; he explained, saying that there wasn&#8217;t really time to think about the fact that he could have been killed while there were lives to save. &#8220;But you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.&#8221;
According to Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, only 15 survivors remain following Chandler&#8217;s passing.

74th Commemoration Of Attacks At Pearl Harbor Held In Hawaii

Pearl Harbor Survivor Has Died At 103, Only 15 Remain

Military

Pearl Harbor

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tom-cruise">Tom Cruise</a> has received the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-navy">U.S. Navy</a>’s top civilian honor for “outstanding contributions to the Navy and the Marine Corps” thanks to his work on “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/top-gun">Top Gun</a>” and other military-themed films.
The 62-year-old actor was presented with the Distinguished Public Service Award by U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro in a ceremony at Longcross Studios near London on Tuesday, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tom-cruise-top-gun-navy-honor-britain-973f508e7d1359f5f473a6697c3e5984">Associated Press</a> reported. The honor came with a medal and certificate.
“I admire all of the servicemen and women,” Cruise said. “I know in life, something that is very true to me, is that is to lead is to serve. And I know that to my core. And I see that in the servicemen and women.”
The U.S. Navy credited the Hollywood star with “[increasing] public awareness and appreciation for our highly trained personnel and the sacrifices they make while in uniform.”
“Top Gun” (1986) depicts Cruise as Lieutenant Pete &#8220;Maverick&#8221; Mitchell, a naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and LTJG Nick &#8220;Goose&#8221; Bradshaw go on to train at the US Navy&#8217;s Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
The first film received mixed reviews but went on to become one of the most beloved action dramas of the time. “Top Gun” is a cult classic that earned $357 million worldwide after being produced for just $15 million. 
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A sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” was released in 2022 and absolutely dominated the box office, bringing in close to $1.5 billion worldwide and making it the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career. 
The Navy said the “Top Gun” sequel “brought nostalgia to older audiences and reinvigorated the minds of newer audience members, effectively targeting a younger audience’s interest in the skill sets and opportunities the Navy can provide.”
Cruise was also recognized for other patriotic roles, including his parts in Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and A Few Good Men (1992). He has also starred in the Mission: Impossible franchise, with the next installment slated to be released in May 2025. 
“Top Gun 3” is in the early stages of being developed for Paramount Pictures.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise Awarded Top U.S. Navy Civilian Award For ‘Top Gun,’ Other Military Films

Tom Cruise Awarded Top U.S. Navy Civilian Award For 'Top Gun,' Other Military Films

Celebrities

Entertainment

Top Gun

President-elect Donald Trump attended the 125th Army-Navy football game on Saturday, marking the fifth time Trump has made it to the face-off.
Trump was accompanied by a host of conservative figures, including incoming Vice President JD Vance, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, who&#8217;s been selected by Trump to be a national security adviser; Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire Elon Musk, subway hero Daniel Penny, among others.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Will be going to the Army/Navy Game tomorrow to root on these fantastic young men. Should be a great game. See you there! DJT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1867819780809666804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
&nbsp;
When Trump arrived in the presidential suite, he was greeted with cheers and chants of &#8220;U-S-A.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> arrives at Northwest Stadium 🇺🇸🏈 <a href="https://t.co/rVqLLT2A9i">pic.twitter.com/rVqLLT2A9i</a>
— Margo Martin (@margomartin) <a href="https://twitter.com/margomartin/status/1868024822036623490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Trump saluted during the playing of our national anthem.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
WATCH: President Donald J. Trump salutes as the National Anthem is performed at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a>.
GOD BLESS OUR MILITARY! <a href="https://t.co/NAcYXKE4IY">pic.twitter.com/NAcYXKE4IY</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868029497095930162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Waltz, Gabbard, and Hegseth said they were rooting for Army before the game. &#8220;We love our Navy — except today,&#8221; they said. &#8220;Go Army, beat Navy.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/AvHLqB7xea">pic.twitter.com/AvHLqB7xea</a>
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelgwaltz/status/1868022853850865860?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
This past week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daniel-penny-to-attend-army-navy-game-as-jd-vances-guest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vice President-elect JD Vance invited subway hero Daniel Penny</a> to attend the game, as highlighted by The Daily Wire.
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“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance wrote on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.
I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage. <a href="https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3">https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3</a>
— JD Vance (@JDVance) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance/status/1867574373806215465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
Penny accepted the invitation and was spotted with Vance in the presidential suite.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SPOTTED: American Hero Daniel Penny joins VP-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JDVance</a> at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a>.
President Trump is en route. <a href="https://t.co/bigGt8xyBj">pic.twitter.com/bigGt8xyBj</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868021739873304684?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Daniel Penny joined President Donald J. Trump and VP-elect JD Vance at the <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmyNavyGame?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ArmyNavyGame</a> today in Landover, Maryland. <a href="https://t.co/RCpxDQqcQn">pic.twitter.com/RCpxDQqcQn</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1868059241866838139?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daniel-penny-to-attend-army-navy-game-as-jd-vances-guest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Penny To Attend Army-Navy Game As JD Vance’s Guest</a>

President-Elect Donald Trump Watches Army-Navy Football Game

Trump Rolls Deep With Conservative Entourage At Army-Navy Game, Elicits ‘USA’ Chants

Daniel Penny

Donald Trump

Football

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced this week that he has nominated businessman John Phelan to serve as the next Secretary of the U.S. Navy.
&#8220;John will be a tremendous force for our Naval Servicemembers, and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision,&#8221; Trump said in a statement. &#8220;He will put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else.&#8221;
Phelan is the Founder and Chairman of Rugger Management LLC, a private equity firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. He previously was the co-founder and managing partner of MSD Capital, LP, the private investment firm for Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies.
&#8220;John’s intelligence and leadership are unmatched,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;His incredible knowledge and experience will elevate the lives of the brave Americans who serve our Nation. John will deliver real results for our Navy and our Country. I look forward to working with him.&#8221;
Trump called Phelan &#8220;truly brilliant&#8221; while highlighting his academic background, including his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Phelan also graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude with distinction from SMU with a B.A. in economics and political science.
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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) responded to the selection on X: &#8220;Congrats to my friend John Phelan! We must return our military to its rightful position as the most lethal fighting force in the world. I look forward to your leadership! Go Navy!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Congrats to my friend John Phelan! We must return our military to its rightful position as the most lethal fighting force in the world. I look forward to your leadership!
Go Navy! <a href="https://t.co/WRNRRXt0Fi">https://t.co/WRNRRXt0Fi</a>
— Rick Scott (@ScottforFlorida) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottforFlorida/status/1861770151076536685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2024</a></blockquote>

Marc Dennis: An American In London – Private View

Trump Taps ‘Truly Brilliant’ Businessman John Phelan To Lead U.S. Navy

Politics

Trump Administration

A new biopic of President Ronald Reagan has earned nearly $10 million since premiering and clocked a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, exceeding expectations for the film’s success.
But this success was hardly a foregone conclusion. “Reagan,” directed by Sean McNamara and starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president, hit several roadblocks on its way to the silver screen. First, the coronavirus pandemic, and then Hollywood strikes derailed production, and delayed the film’s premiere.
Looking back, McNamara sees these delays as “providential.”
“This film…was never intended to come out in an election year,” McNamara told The Daily Wire. “But now, in the wake of recent events, the film feels more urgent and relevant. Watching it today, especially with the backdrop of the recent assassination attempt and campus protests, it’s clear that history has a way of repeating itself. Reagan’s story, and his message, is one that we need to hear right now.”
“Reagan” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-new-trailer-for-reagan-movie-starring-dennis-quaid-just-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follows</a> the titular president from his childhood and Hollywood career through his time in politics. Told from the perspective of a fictional KGB agent, portrayed by Jon Voight, the film is based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 book, “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.”
There was another fortuitous result of “Reagan’s” delayed premiere. Sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan — who would have been deployed supporting operations including the withdrawal from Afghanistan at the time of the original premiere — were instead able to see the film and meet with McNamara and Voight at a special screening within their hangar bay.
&#8220;This was an incredible Reagan moment aboard USS Ronald Reagan,&#8221; Capt. Harry Evans III, Executive Officer of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We pride ourselves in keeping President Reagan&#8217;s legacy alive by upholding the highest standards in everything we do.”
<div id="attachment_790229" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-790229" class="wp-image-790229 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-863x576.webp" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-863x576.webp 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-300x200.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-768x513.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95.webp 999w" sizes="(max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />US NAVY PHOTO</div>
Chief Operations Specialist (Select) Shaun Jacob echoed the significance of the moment, calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…to learn more about President Reagan’s history.”
The opportunity to share “Reagan” with the sailors was a personal highlight for McNamara.
&#8220;It was amazing,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;I voted for Reagan in my first election, and to come full circle by creating this film and sharing it with those who serve on a ship bearing his name — it was a profound experience.”
Voight, a passionate defender of Reagan’s legacy, told The Daily Wire that the 40th president “believed in the strength of the American spirit” who “led by that example.”
“Every part of our history deserves and needs heroes,” Voight said. “John Paul II was a hero of that time. Reagan was a hero. Margaret Thatcher was a hero in my eyes. All lived and led and worked together during that dark time. And what is a hero? A hero stands up against lies and deceit and evil behavior.”
<div id="attachment_790233" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-790233" class="size-large wp-image-790233" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-1-863x576.webp" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-1-863x576.webp 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-1-300x200.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-1-768x513.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/1000w_q95-1.webp 999w" sizes="(max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />US NAVY PHOTO</div>
Voight also commented on the fortuitous timing of the film’s delayed release coinciding with a period of heightened political tension.
“It’s remarkable how history seems to echo itself,” he said. “With the current political climate and recent events, including the attempted assassination of President Trump and the ongoing student protests, the film’s portrayal of Reagan’s leadership and resilience resonates deeply. It reminds us of the importance of courage and conviction in the face of adversity.”
Voight told The Daily Wire he hopes that “Reagan” will inspire a renewed sense of patriotism in a divided country.
“This movie isn’t just about looking back at Reagan’s presidency; it’s about inspiring us to look forward with hope and unity,” Voight said. “Reagan’s legacy is a testament to the power of leadership and the need for each of us to rise above our differences and work together for a better future.”
“Ronald Reagan’s story is not just about one man’s journey—it’s about the soul of America,” Voight added. “And right now, America needs to remember who we are and what we stand for.”

1000w_q95-2

‘Reagan’s’ Long And Winding Road To Success

Hollywood

Jon Voight

Movies

Ronald Reagan

In the early part of the last century, the popularity of smoking was at its apex with about half of America lighting up. Believe it or not, back then it was not uncommon to find advertisements touting the health benefits of cigarettes. In fact, in 1937, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Philip Morris</a> heavily advertised that a study conducted by doctors found that their cigarettes cleared up any and all cases of throat irritation. Just imagine how difficult it would have been to convince an avid smoker back then that this was complete hogwash. Maybe some of you have experienced exactly that difficulty with parents or grandparents who smoked. 
We have a similar challenge today, but in a completely different arena. That arena concerns our American culture – a culture that has historically stressed excellence, meritocracy, and equality of opportunity. It is rapidly being replaced with a different ideology known best by the deceptively innocent catch phrase of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or DEI.
Those certainly sound like uncontroversial words and concepts, and DEI proponents would have you believe that it is about embracing individual differences, tolerance of people who are different, improving teamwork and output, ensuring equal opportunity, and combatting harmful racial and gender biases. Only a heartless, bigoted, sexist, illogical soul could object to any of that, right? 
Regrettably, nothing could be further from the truth. In practice, like touting the health benefits of cigarettes, the words Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bring with them the opposite of virtually everything they claim to promote.  
Sadly, thanks to billions of dollars of marketing — akin to the cigarette smoking in the past — many if not most Americans are blind to the real impact of DEI. To these people, critics sound off base or as though they are merely throwing out random derogatory names when they refer to DEI as Marxist. That is understandable because it is a particularly well camouflaged initiative. Nonetheless, under the guise of fighting racism, and promoting fairness, inclusivity, and productivity, it achieves the same objective of division, resentment, and chaos. But instead of pitting people against each other on the basis of socioeconomic class warfare — the more traditional hallmark of Marxism — DEI does so through race, gender, and sexual identity. 
Also, part of why the charge of Marxism may at first sound like hyperbole is because the DEI stuff itself is so whacky and seemingly haphazard that ascribing to it the name of an economic theory seems to give it more purpose and organization than it deserves. After all, what could denouncing all white people as guilty oppressors and putting tampons in men’s rooms possibly have in common? However, those people need to remember, as Christopher Rufo points out in his excellent work <a href="https://manhattan.institute/book/americas-cultural-revolution-how-the-radical-left-conquered-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“America’s Cultural Revolution,”</a> the first objective of Marxism is revolution, and the key drivers for that are segmentation, demonization, resentment, and chaos. It has been working.
As former <a href="https://starrs.us/the-more-diversity-officers-and-dei-training-race-relations-get-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Army Captain Kendall Qualls</a> has observed, per Gallup and Southern Economic Journal, in 2003, nearly 70% of black and white Americans rated race relations either good or very good, which was one of the highest ratings in its tracking history. Since then, as the number of DEI officers in America’s institutions has soared, that percentage has plummeted by more than 30 points. From our <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/opinion/christopher-rufo-diversity-desantis-florida-university.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">schools</a>, to the practice of <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/how-americas-obsession-with-dei-is" target="_blank" rel="noopener">medicine</a> and other <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/how-dei-is-supplanting-truth-as-the" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sciences</a>, to <a href="https://armedforces.press/two-dei-contradictions-exposed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">politics</a>, to the <a href="https://time.com/6998539/trump-shooting-republicans-blame-dei-secret-service-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Secret Service</a>, and <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/race-in-america/dei-doesnt-work-study-of-studies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">private sector corporations</a>, DEI has been an <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/12/the-failure-of-the-dei-industrial-complex" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unmitigated disaster</a>.
Aside from these institutions there is one other critical organization with a much smaller margin of error in which DEI has been deeply imbedded – our military. If there is one domain in which a country needs meritocracy, excellence, unity, and esprit de corps to reign supreme, it is with its war-fighting effectiveness.
In 2011, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) established a new paradigm. The MLDC’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA539297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">162-page Final Report</a>, titled “From Representation to Inclusion: Diversity Leadership for the 21st Century,” shifted priorities away from meritocracy and non-discrimination, moving instead toward “diversity” and “equity” as paramount goals. 
The impact has been swift and devastating. Consider just a sampling of what that has helped produce:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.heritage.org/military" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Heritage Foundation</a> – one of the only comprehensive, non-governmental assessments of our military readiness – for the first time provided an overall rating for 2024 of “weak,” down from “marginal” in 2023.</li>
<li>The military overall is facing the largest recruiting crisis in over half a century – short by some <a href="https://americanmilitarynews.com/2023/12/us-military-41000-troops-short-of-recruitment-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41,000 personnel</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/report-the-national-independent-panel-military-service-and-readiness">The National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness</a> concluded that the human elements of training, discipline, cohesion, confidence, and morale critical to fighting and winning wars are under severe duress due to a prioritization of a political agenda that distracts from the war-fighting mission and diminishes trust in military leadership.</li>
<li>In all the services today, biological men are allowed to <a href="https://popularmilitary.com/armys-new-guidelines-for-transgender-showering-urinalysis-tests-are-leaked/">berth and shower</a> with women.</li>
<li>With some <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/599459-army-approves-reduced-physical-fitness-standards-for-women-older-soldiers/">44% of women</a> failing the Army Combat Fitness Test, the Army has reduced the standards for the test to accommodate more women and older soldiers.</li>
<li>DoD data show that some <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/10/13/nearly-70-of-active-service-members-are-overweight-report-finds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70% of active duty service members</a> are overweight and that obesity rates have doubled in the last ten years. </li>
<li>The Navy has celebrated “Pride” for 12 consecutive years, and this past year used a <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/03/us-navy-appointed-active-duty-drag-queen-as-ambassador/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drag queen</a> in its recruiting. </li>
<li>Per the <a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/media/359970/2022-survey-summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reagan Institute</a>, in just five years, the percentage of Americans saying they had trust and confidence in our military plummeted from 70% to 45% – the first time ever that a minority of the country expressed a great deal of trust and confidence in the military. </li>
<li>In 2018, 70% of Americans said they would recommend joining the military to family or friends. Just five years later in 2023, that number had <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/11/30/most-would-encourage-military-service-confidence-armed-forces-remains-low-survey-finds.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted to 51%</a>. </li>
</ul>
In collecting feedback from military personnel and their families <a href="https://starrs.us/what-people-are-saying/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STARRS</a> recently received this comment from a Marine father: “My son, who wanted to be a Marine his entire youth, left after 5 years, disgusted with the new &#8216;woke&#8217; Marines.”
Another service member said, “After 20 years of commissioned service, I tell folks all the time – no matter how woke you think the armed forces are, it is much worse.” 
Wars happen when aggressive adversaries assess, rightly or wrongly, that their opponent is weak enough to be defeated. How do America’s adversaries assess its military readiness today? Distressingly, it is likely that they see it as far lower than they did a mere decade or so ago.
Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Stanford Professor and historian <a href="https://starrs.us/the-dei-ruse-is-imploding/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victor Davis Hanson</a> says this of DEI: 
<blockquote>“In the end, DEI will implode because of its many contradictions: it is racist to the core; it is illegal and violates court decisions and the Constitution; it destroys meritocracy; and it is utterly incoherent in adjudicating who and who not deserve racial preferences.”</blockquote>
In ancient times, rigorous athletic competition was considered preparation for war and therefore critical to the survival of a society. In fact, Greek law required physical exercise of both men and women. Athletic competition or sport is perhaps the one stage in our current culture that has remained resistant to the DEI scourge. And yet, how ironic that, while Americans are opposed to removing meritocracy from sports – an enterprise that has historically symbolized combat readiness – they have been willing to throw it under the bus in the realm of actual combat readiness, our military.
The pages of history are filled with failed nations and cultures that made fatal errors in estimating and addressing their war-fighting readiness. We are currently on such a path with America’s military. We need to eradicate DEI policies and practices from the institution that stands between totalitarianism, communism, terrorist extremists and our free republic – our military.
* * *
Dr. Greg Salsbury is former president of Western Colorado University, author of the 2006 award winning book &#8220;But What If I Live?&#8221; which predicted the 2008 meltdown, and the follow up book &#8220;Retirementology – Rethinking the American Dream in a New Economy,&#8221; which topped Amazon’s “personal finance” category.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Navy cadets marching

Cigarettes, DEI, And Our Military

Cigarettes

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Marines

Marxism

Opinion

Readers Pass

FRANCE-WWII-LIBERATION-LANDING-PROVENCE

Operation Dragoon: The Forgotten Invasion Of World War II, The Champagne Campaign

Europe

France

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

Josef Stalin

Nazi Germany

Winston Churchill

The Biden-Harris Defense Department paid outside organizations millions of taxpayer dollars to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including race-based career advancement programs, in the U.S. military, documents shared exclusively with The Daily Wire reveal.
The documents, first obtained by the Functional Government Initiative, highlight the extent of the Pentagon&#8217;s efforts to embed leftwing, race-based ideology in the military, in partnership with academic institutions and consulting firms. The outside organizations received taxpayer dollars to set up hiring pipelines that gave candidates preferential treatment on the basis of race and sex, advise the government agency on DEI policy, and combat internal and external resistance to said policies.
The contracts are the latest evidence of the Biden-Harris administration&#8217;s push to impose DEI policies and practices throughout the federal government, including the military. Critics have blasted the administration for this push, arguing that their ideological focus detracts from military readiness and may even cause some Americans to sour on military service amid an ongoing recruiting crisis, compromising our national security in the process.
The Functional Government Initiative slammed the DOD’s decision to push a political agenda rather than focus on military readiness.
“The U.S. and its allies are facing challenges and threats all over the globe. Despite the increased concern for military preparedness, the DOD continues to prioritize DEI initiatives,” FGI spokesman Peter McGinnis told The Daily Wire.
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1722626095142000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0GUAVt-7j8rpCAEKJfeADC">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — MATT WALSH&#8217;S EXPOSÉ ON DEI</a>
“Rather than maximizing readiness training to ensure a capable military, the DOD’s training seems calculated to foster sowing internal discord with aggressive efforts to promote controversial ideologies,&#8221; McGinnis added. &#8220;Americans join the military to serve their nation and protect the homeland, not to sit through sensitivity training. The DOD owes them better.”
The Defense Department went beyond pushing DEI on members, paying academic institutions to build career pipelines that disadvantaged men and white people on the basis of their sex and race.
The Department of the Navy <a href="https://functionalgovernment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Military-readiness-or-diversity-training-grant-doc-2.pdf">awarded</a> the University of Missouri Kansas City $760,000 to design a program that would give preferential treatment to non-white students and women in STEM applying for Defense Department jobs. The program&#8217;s designers openly acknowledged that it would give preferential treatment to applicants on the basis of their sex and race.
“To meet our equity-focused programmatic goals, campus internship selection will be equitable such that qualified applicants from underserved and underrepresented cohorts … will be provided first choice,” the designers said.
The Defense Department <a href="https://functionalgovernment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Military-readiness-or-diveristy-training-contract-doc.pdf">awarded</a> Cornell University around $202,000 “to provide Diversity training that is mission imperative to ensure readiness and addressing discriminatory behavior from a cognitive perspective.” The DEI program sought to train 35 employees of the Air Force Materiel Command to deliver DEI training to an estimated 70,000 employees, with a focus on “counteracting unconscious bias,” “fostering an inclusive environment,” and “diversity and inclusion at work.”
The Defense Department also <a href="https://functionalgovernment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Military-readiness-or-diversity-training-Air-force-grant.pdf">paid</a> the RAND Corporation an undisclosed sum of money for a project titled “Research and Analysis Support for the Department of Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion.”
Among other things, RAND&#8217;s report offered the DOD advice on how to combat growing resistance to military DEI initiatives.
“Across organizations, a resistance to DE&amp;I is growing, while discriminatory and xenophobic expressions are increasing,” the report reads. “Some researchers describe the presence of ‘denial perspectives’ and ‘diversity defiance,’ or ‘White fatigue,’” the report went on to say before cautioning the Defense Department to &#8220;watch for&#8221; these perspectives &#8220;and exercise caution to guard against them.”
RAND urged the Department of the Air Force to “develop techniques and tools to mitigate resistance” to the DEI agenda among its employees and enlisted members.
The Defense Department paid DEI consulting agency <a href="https://www.bctpartners.com/insights-1">BCT Partners</a> just under $2 million in <a href="https://functionalgovernment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Military-readiness-or-diversity-training-grant-doc.pdf">2021</a> to create a “DEI Action Plan” for DOD-operated schools, called the DOD Education Activity.
In its performance work statement, BCT deploys typical DEI boilerplate. It notes that Critical Race Theory &#8220;is an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy&#8221; and &#8220;“Systematic racism [that] is part of the American life.&#8221; The document also decries “microaggressions” and “implicit bias.”
The Biden-Harris administration has continuously worked to embed the far-left DEI agenda throughout the federal government, from the military and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/internal-docs-show-entire-intelligence-community-warned-to-avoid-problematic-phrases-on-islamic-terrorism">intelligence community</a> to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-federal-guide-on-inclusive-language-tells-bureaucrats-to-ditch-gendered-terms-like-son-daughter">bureaucracy</a> writ-large. The Daily Wire previously revealed that the Pentagon requested nearly $270 million in taxpayer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-pentagon-slated-to-spend-nearly-270-million-on-diversity-agenda">funds for the DEI agenda</a> from 2022 to 2024 under the leftwing administration.
President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/16/executive-order-on-further-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/">signed</a> multiple <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/25/executive-order-on-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility-in-the-federal-workforce/">executive orders</a> institutionalizing the leftwing doctrine, and his federal agencies have even worked to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-biden-admin-enables-government-employees-to-change-genders">enable gender transition</a> attempts among government employees, barring the use of biologically accurate pronouns in the process.
Former President Donald Trump has pledged to gut the bureaucracy through <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-presidency-schedule-f-federal-employees">executive orders</a> if he is reelected in November, cutting down the size of the administrative state and firing those who may otherwise work to undermine his policy agenda.
UPDATE: The contract between the DOD and the University of Missouri Kansas City was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pentagon-was-compelled-to-drop-discriminatory-dei-program-after-supreme-court-ruling">amended</a> to drop the race and sex-based  preferences immediately following the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling against affirmative action policies in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard in June 2023.

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EXCLUSIVE: Biden-Harris Admin Paid Consultants Millions To Help Military Implement Race-Based Hiring, Combat Resistance to DEI

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