Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 46



Only Noblemtl

#046

On September 13, 1924, Pershing retired from active service.

Because it was the rule that officers were to retire on their 64th birthday.

And Pershing’s last personnel request before his retirement included the promotion of me, MacArthur, to major general.

It was actually something I never thought of. And at that time, I had a lot of work to do in the Philippines.

‘It’s no help at all.’

I had a lot of trouble deciding whether Pershing’s actions were really for my benefit or just to get me to drink.

Anyway, Pershing’s request is not passed at first.

“Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur as Major General?”

“It’s been quite some time since I was promoted to brigadier general. Isn’t it ridiculous that I’m not being promoted because of my age when I’m more than capable?”

“No, that’s true, but.”

“But isn’t that too young?”

“That’s right. It’s not an exhibition right now.”

First of all, I am too young, and then there is the Republican government’s desire to avoid making any noise if possible ahead of the presidential election.

Of course, it was my opinion that it was fortunate, and other people’s reactions were a bit different.

“Have you ever seen such a bunch of idiots? What’s the big deal about age?”

Wood was upset by the announcement from his home country and consoled me.

“Oh my god. I’m sorry, son. This mother should have tried harder…”

Mrs. Pinky blamed herself for not being able to properly lobby the members of parliament or the minister due to her sudden illness.

“The Republicans really don’t have the eye for detail. How about joining hands with our Democratic Party this time?”

Franklin was talking nonsense,

“As expected, the dogs are so old-fashioned.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a seal.”

King and his navy friends also kept making the outrageous remark that a land dog is a land dog.

Be that as it may, I was too busy at the time to care about that kind of situation.

Having dragged the Philippines into the Great Kanto Earthquake and used it as an opportunity to gather young people from the colony, including Koreans, they had to be careful about what happened afterwards.

Although Mitchell was more passionate than anyone about running the Manila Flight School, I had a lot of work to do, such as establishing and operating Philippine Airlines.

The workload increased even more as events beyond my calculations occurred, such as the large-scale immigration of Koreans to the Philippines and the resulting changes in Philippine society.

“It is a sin to make fun of a capable person like you.”

Wood’s rolling and

“What does it mean to be a good friend? Weren’t you the one who started all this in the first place?”

Manuel said that since we started together, we should work together too.

“You know, I don’t know much about complicated stuff like this. My specialty is explosions and crashes.”

Mitchell, who leaves all complicated matters to me.

“I… I’m sorry, but we don’t have anywhere else to talk about it….”

Even though they apologized, the Koreans and other young people from the colony clung to them.

There were plenty of people who wanted to run me as much as I ran Eisenhower and Bradley, if not more.

At this point, I had no choice but to change my mind.

‘If I stay here, the Pacific War will start and I’ll die from overwork.’

At that moment, completely unexpected news was delivered.

“Huh? A promotion? That didn’t happen···.”

“I guess the President had a very favorable opinion of the brigadier general.”

It was none other than President Calvin Coolidge who took the initiative to revive my promotion, which the Secretary of State had rejected.

That’s how I got promoted to major general and was able to escape this hellish Philippines.

‘Your Excellency, I will definitely remember this favor.’

There’s nothing I can do about it, I’ll just remember it, that’s it.

Anyway, Wood waved his hand and said this to me as a greeting.

“Don’t worry about this place and go do your job.”

“How could that be? If circumstances allow, I will go and do it···.”

At my words that he would be careful, Wood shook his head with a firm expression.

“No, don’t do that. Forget about this place and don’t even look at it.”

“yes?”

“Coolidge seems to be quite worried about what happened during the Great Kanto Earthquake.”

Coolidge escaped the crisis by making Japan look like a dog and managed to get re-elected.

But Coolidge never forgot what happened that day. That’s why he started to really tease Wood as soon as he was re-elected.

And the one who caught his and the Republican Party’s eye was none other than me.

“I heard that he is close friends with the Filipinos who actively participated in this work.”

“Wasn’t that originally a bit of a standout greeting?”

“Come to think of it, both when you were at West Point and in Europe, you had a very close relationship with the press, right?”

They looked at me with suspicion because I was dealing with too many areas for a mere regiment commander.

It is already widely known that I have a special connection with the Philippines, especially thanks to my father Arthur.

Their suspicions were also fueled by the recent rise of people like my close friend Manuel to the top of Philippine politics.

As expected, it was Wood who actively took my side on that matter.

“This is something I specifically requested. Are you not going to give the Philippines independence?”

“That, that.”

“There were more than one or two things to do and places to take care of in order to properly create a country and make it independent. Since it would be difficult to do it alone, I brought him in and used him even though I knew he was a soldier.”

As Wood’s proactive explanation and the circumstances that led him to do so became known in detail, most people accepted it as possible, but not everyone did.

“Still, I’m a little worried about leaving it in the Philippines like that.”

“yes?”

“Governor Wood said it was his own request, but don’t all accidents happen when the unexpected happens?”

“Promote him. And bring him back to the mainland.”

Wood’s remark that Coolidge was not a man who ever forgot grudges was in line with what Marshall had said earlier.

“Oh, so that means I got promoted···.”

“It’s to get you out of here. So don’t even look this way for a while.”

“All right.”

Fortunately, Governor Wood was a trustworthy man. And Brigadier General Mitchell, too.

‘People have changed. At least I don’t think they’ll do the ridiculous things they used to do.’

So in January 1926, I set out on my way back to the Philippines after three years in the country.

##

From the beginning, my promotion was not really a reward for my achievements, but rather an excuse to keep me away from the Philippines.

The task assigned to me upon my return to the mainland was to command the 4th Corps at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The son of a Federation Army officer is commanding us?”

“Of all the greetings, why did you send this greeting here?”

“This is a disrespect to our Southern people.”

And there I had to deal with a huge pest.

The achievements made in the Great War and the reputation as a war hero were of no use.

To the Dixies of the South, I was simply the son of Arthur MacArthur, the Northern officer who had attacked them.

“Damn. What is this···”

It reminded me of someone from Chaumont who was a tight-knit team I played against in Europe back in the day.

“Director.”

I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at the sight of Bradley and Eisenhower calling me with pitiful faces.

“Even if that’s true for me, you guys are having a hard time.”

To be honest, there was no sense of enmity that reached even me, who was a director.

But still, isn’t this the military? The ranks are thugs, so what can they do other than grumble at me, a major general?

But my two aides were different.

I couldn’t stand seeing the two of them getting more and more haggard day by day.

“Contact the General Staff.”

“but···.”

If I wanted to hold on, there was nothing I couldn’t do. But I didn’t want to waste my energy unnecessarily.

Even in the 21st century, racial discrimination and regionalism remain persistent problems.

If it were wartime now, they wouldn’t have retreated like this, but there was still quite a bit of time left before war broke out.

And above all,

“Good idea.”

“Ike.”

“As expected, you figured out what I was thinking.”

“yes.”

Who promoted me to major general and put me here? It was President Coolidge.

Even if it was luck that he went from vice president to president, it had to be seen as his ability alone that he was able to overcome the chaos of the Great Kanto Earthquake and be re-elected.

Would a person who became the president of a country like that really send me here without thinking?

It may be that he was trying to screw me over, but at the same time, he was trying to see how I would react in a situation like this.

“If I hold out or if I overcome this difficulty, won’t they be more wary of me?”

“That’s right. Fortunately, the Dixie guys are also causing trouble, so the director’s request won’t be ignored.”

That’s right. The ones who were most distressed by my presence here were actually the Dixie guys.

Not only the personnel of the 4th Corps, but even the local residents were complaining about my presence.

And politicians who were more sensitive to local public sentiment than anyone else were also secretly putting pressure on the Ministry of War.

“I’ll try to contact you secretly.”

So I left Atlanta and moved to the 3rd Army Corps in Maryland.

Of course, outwardly, he showed that he did not want it.

“This is the most unpleasant order I have ever received.”

##

“Wow. Your eyes have become much clearer.”

“You too.”

New York, which I visited after a long time, was still the same.

“Oh my goodness.”

They say that children grow up when you turn around, but I was surprised to see how much they had grown while I was away for a short while.

“uncle.”

“Now you look like a lady.”

Anna was now in her twenties, and even the youngest, John, was in his teens, entering the stormy years of his life.

“Where have all the little brats gone who were whining the last time we broke up?”

Of course, he still had a grumpy expression on his face at my playful remark.

“Are you completely back now?”

“Well, I don’t know. Aren’t soldiers supposed to live and die by orders? Our American sphere of influence is scattered all over the world.”

“By the way, I heard you’re working at a newspaper these days?”

“yes.”

Anna nodded and grumbled that her mother kept telling her to get married.

“Your uncle is still here.”

“So I’ve been hearing the same nagging for decades. Yeah, yeah. How’s our Elliot doing?”

When I asked Elliot, who was hanging around as if he wanted me to pay attention to him,

“I, I want to go to the Philippines.”

“Huh? Philippines?”

Well, it wasn’t strange. Elliot was seventeen.

Wasn’t it an age when one’s sense of adventure was boiling over? It was a time when one’s fantasies about unfamiliar places one had never been to, especially foreign countries, were blooming.

“The Philippines is good. It’s even better these days.”

“They’re building a lot of airfields there, and there’s even an aviation school.”

“Uh. You···.”

“Please stop him. He doesn’t know how to value his life.”

James, who was three years older and currently a Harvard student, chimed in with a pitiful expression.

“Why? You said you were going to do what you wanted to do.”

I was so out of it when I had five kids.

While staying in New York, I reminisced with familiar faces, including the Roosevelt family.

That day was a similar day.

I was on my way back to the hotel after attending a party in the evening.

The car driven by the chauffeur was driving along the west bank of the Hudson River.

Flash.

“What?”

“Well, someone is using their flashlight up ahead of me. I think I should pull over.”

I nodded at the driver’s words that I was going to crash into something if I continued on like this, since I was standing in the middle of the road.

The man who opened the backseat door as soon as he stopped the car held out a gun.

“If you just hand me your wallet···.”

The voice of the man who had been shouting for her to hand over her wallet while pointing a gun at her gradually faded away. Before he could finish his words, the man who was shaking put the gun away.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.”

“?”

I wasn’t the only one who was taken aback by the sudden apology from the highway robber. The driver also looked dumbfounded.

“Do you know me?”

The answer to the question I asked with the utmost confidence was shocking.

“···Yes. I served in the Rainbow Division. As a sergeant in the Wild Donovan Unit···.”

It was complicated.

I knew for sure that the majority of soldiers who fought in World War I were not treated properly.

The incident that occurred as a result of the explosion of anger from those veterans was the Bonus Army and was a dark chapter in MacArthur’s history.

But I didn’t want to confirm it like this in front of my eyes.

“Take it and leave.”

“Huh? Oh, no.”

I yelled at the man who was waving his hands.

“Are you trying to make me, MacArthur, a mean man? And this money is for your children, not you.”

I would have liked to give him a gift, but since it was late, I decided to make do with this instead. The man’s eyes turned red at my words that he should definitely buy something the kids would like on his way home.

I’m angry.

It was annoying that I only had a few dozen dollars in cash to hand over right away.

Moreover, I was so sad that my precious subordinates had to commit such robbery.

“If you ever have any difficulties, be sure to contact me. That was my last order when we parted ways, wasn’t it? Yes?”

“Yes, yes, General.”

So my last night in New York was quite bitter.

“Should we clean up already?”

“yes.”

I immediately went to see my mother, Mrs. Pinky, and told her that I wanted to liquidate all the investments I had made.

“I have a place to spend my money.”

It was something I had been thinking about doing for a while, but thinking about the work along the Hudson River made me feel like I had to start as soon as possible.

“We need to create a foundation.”

────────────────────────────────────

────────────────────────────────────

An unexpected proposal