In “The Bridges at Toko-ri,” the movie about the Korean War based on James Michener’s novel, Adm. George Tarrant watches as his pilots take off from the pitching deck of a carrier to attack the enemy and asks, “Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. … Where do we get such men?”
Though our schools and colleges have neglected the teaching of military history these last 50 years or so, novels like Michael Shaara’s “Killer Angels,” the histories of World War II by Stephen Ambrose, and movies like “Saving Private Ryan” remain popular with the public. As we read these books or watch these films, we may be thinking, as did Admiral Tarrant, “Where do we get such men?”…