Here’s a few questions you might find of interest to either pose to your readers for a discussion, or for your “What If?” section -
A) What if President Roosevelt had buckled and named Hugh Drum as Army Chief of Staff in 1939?

B) What if Jonathan Wainwright had *not* been assigned to the Philippines ?

C) What if Marshall had decided to have one of his original choices for US Army European Command(Patton, Stillwell, Eichelberger)sent over to England after Eisenhower had ‘cleared the way’ for him?

D) What if Roosevelt had decided in 1939 to pick a new Army Chief of Staff from a ’secondary list’ of younger Generals, which was provided to him by the outgoing Chief of Staff, Malin Craig(Grunert, Benedict, Ridley, and Chaffee?)

E) What if Chaffee, who was one time considered to be sent to the Philippines(but Wainwright went instead) had instead been named Army Chief of Staff in 1939; and thus not the Chief of the US Armored Forces?

F) *If* Chaffee had been named Army C.O.S. in 1939, what might have happened when he died of cancer in November, 1941?

Sincerely,

Charles Ward

Summerville, SC

Great read!!!
Acting as Lt.Col. G.C.Marshall in the Battle of Cantigny WW1
May 28 1918, I would choose course of action #3, infiltration.
Using artillary fire on the north & south flanks to prevent
German movement.

Best Regards
warren

Hello, I was reading your September 2009 Issue of Armchair General about the Secrets of Lord Nelson’s Naval Genius by David T. Zabecki and Carl Otis Schuster.

I would like to point out that as many documentaries have left out a very important in Lord Horatio Nelson’s command his right hand man so to speak during the battle of Trafalgar which would be my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Grandfather Robert Hayley Judd. They failed to point out the fact that the HMS Victory was actually Judd’s ship and Nelson’s ship he was supposed to take was not completed so according to documents and family history he took the HMS Victory off my Grandfather. My uncle who lives in another part of the county (Canada) has the documents. Also you will find Judd’s name on the HMS Victory. As far as we knew he was an Admiral but he could have been a commander as well. My Uncle has his bible and his diary. Much stuff was burned by by Great, Great, Great, Great, Grandmother who went insane. What was left my uncle kept. Lots of Biographies on Nelson goes silent after he died not at all siting the fact that my Grandfather of long ago in 1812 was in fact given charge of the Victory after. Only one or two documentaries I have seen did mention his name. He fought in many wars and was one of the few survivors of Bunker Hill.

Sincerely,

Andrew Kelly

That said, I must take issue with Mr. Peters, The No-Victory Lie. Sadly, I routinely find myself put off by the opinions of Mr. Peters and I must question why current politics of a particular bias have become a part of your magazine. I certainly respect Mr. Peters’ opinion, but the idea that the death toll of our Iraqi “adventure” simply doesn’t add up to a Cold Harbor or an Antietam or let’s say the losses of the Arizona…is just wrong-headed thinking. The death of one of our precious Servicemen and Servicewomen for an “adventure” is simply too many.

Too many people weigh the cost of war based on faceless numbers…without reflecting that each life lost brings suffering to yet another American Family.

So maybe it’s best to armchair the past and not the present.