Minority patriots united in purpose

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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer 10:31 PM Saturday, February 25, 2012

He’s not facing the bullets, rockets or shells he faced at Khe Sahn and Con Tien. But from behind a chair in his barber shop at 405 W. Johnny Lytle Ave., Martin Bronston is caught in a crossfire.

On the one hand, the Marine veteran fends off a tradition that plays down the military achievements of minorities.

“It’s the stuff left out of the history books,” he said.

Bronston is careful to mention it’s not just blacks. Alongside the Tuskegee Airmen and Montford Point Marines, he lists the Japanese-Americans who served heroically in World War II Europe and Native American “Code Talkers.”

Those in the service knew of their contributions, Bronston said. But the achievements were hushed up at home.

His opinion: Leaders feared that talking up what minorities did would make political waves, frightening those fearful of minorities and encouraging minorities to agitate for equality.

But Bronston also faces off against minorities.

“You have a lot of blacks who don’t want to hear about it,” he said. “You get people asking, why did you serve? You can’t be free here, but you can go fight for freedom.”

His answer to both is the same: “I wasn’t born in Africa, and I wasn’t born in Europe. This is the country I was born in. This is the country I fight for.”

One of generations of his extended family to serve, Bronston said while there were racists in the Marines in his time, other whites were like brothers.

Waiting to get his hair cut, Bronston’s nephew Kyle Peterson chimed in.

“Once you’re in, you’ve got that sense of camaraderie and brotherhood,” said the Air Force veteran. “You’re working side by side,” men and women, blacks, whites and others for the same purpose.

Bronston goes further: “I have a problem with people who say they don’t want to serve with somebody who’s gay. If you’re getting shot at, you’re not asking whether that person is gay.”

To Bronston, shared purpose is at the heart of the military experience and the American experience.

In the military, he said, “You learn what the world is like ... what it’s like to live among other people or other races” — including people and races encountered in service overseas.

It’s why he favors universal military service.

Published last year, “In War’s Wake,” includes multiple authors’ thoughts on the consequences of war and military service on democratic societies.

G. John Ikenberry summarized the findings in Foreign Affairs magazine.

“One author shows that the conscription of mass citizen armies leads to more political participation within warring societies, whereas volunteer professional armies tend to have the opposite effect.”

Ikenberry said author Miguel Centeno “raises perhaps the most ominous point: That the new type of war (the war on terror) has none of the democracy-enhancing effect of the mass-army sort. Instead, it reinforces the segregation of the military from the rest of society.”

The authors say this kind of segregation “undermines civil liberties.”

It also seems to square with Martin Bronston’s larger belief: That segregation of any sort works against the common bond that’s in the best interests of democracy.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368.

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