his name is joe │installment 4

Patriotic Contrivances

Whenever the Captor would descend to the narrow and peevish character of a disputant, he is easily provoked to supply the defect of argument by the plentitude of power. Furthermore, and by way of example, he brutally chastised Joe and Joe’s faithful patriots sans mercy, who exceeded the calculus of results with less cost than expected. Nevertheless, and without as much as a blush the Captor patently carried out his signature gambits, larded with malice and thickened with envy, over all his alliances such that he invariably resorts to double-dealing, subversive tactics, and violates the “covenants of salt” no matter how inviolate, consecrated, or contracted. All that was expected to be preserved in “good faith” was actually intended to be spoiled and subsequently despoiled by the Captor. Peace and toleration, and above all, respect for others, more especially toward the “Dedicated Few”, has never been a virtue of the Captor, the ubiquitous author of all Joe’s and his Bands’ miseries and travails. In the case of the “Entrapped”, meaning Joe and his Band, the zeal or gratitude of the Captor had promised to their valor the patriotic rewards customarily subscribed in the course of outstanding service to a level commensurate to their heroic achievements, was unilaterally dishonored.

Joe and his Band were typically flushed with success in the most dangerous of covert operations, no matter the charge, no matter how the beam turned the scales of war or conflict, they always remained eager for more serviceable action and dutiful challenge. Yet the recognitions due, of the recommendable type, for the benefit of Joe and his Band by the Captor were, without exception, dubiously guided and treacherously translated, by the temperament of his manners and prejudice, into a growing string of inconvenient obligations that had to be clipped in his skewed estimation. But by the Captor’s subtle policy of temporization by equivocation, he turned his debt of laudable praises for Joe and his Band into arraignments against them, and all recognitions owed to them were paid from the treasury of his avaricious repertoire; denominated in recanting’s, reneging’s, reductions, retractions, revisions, rackets and rampages that he might indefinitely postpone, if not altogether extinguish, the recognized service and personal accomplishments won and deserved. Neither civilians nor the military for that matter can trust the Captor’s representations based on his hollow-promises; as all of the heroic performances are alike absorbed into his private fortune without the Captor having the slightest intent to honor his word. Insofar as the Commendations were concerned, they were withheld, but the perils were escalated and uniformly sabotaged with malcontent. All that was left was the prospect of undue exposure to destruction, which was conveniently laid open to Joe and his Band.

Temporizer Extraordinaire

The abstract art of stalling for time to gain advantage, otherwise known as temporization, has been perfected by the Captor. He invariably orchestrates a full scale production that incorporates a seemingly haphazard entanglement of commotions within the set-piece of his dealings; wherein he formulates a host of relevant complexities, masterminded and unctuously, delivered in an obfuscated ad hoc fashion in order to induce, cultivate, persuade, negotiate, deceive, rope in, and finesse the opponent for the sake of gaining leverage. On a sudden the Captor’s ulterior motives become quite transparent in all its sundry manifestations where he would: re-posture to refashion, manipulate to alter, improvise to jeopardize, bluff to reframe, threaten to compel, coerce to begrudge, and finally renegotiate the terms of whatever the subject bargain may be, using that newly acquired leverage. All of the foregoing confirms, beyond a doubt, the tell-tale signs of a psychopath.

This sequence of bad faith tactics typifies the Captor’s strategic mobilization of disparate coordinations, which is universally applied to all of his business and personal dealings so that he can deliberately arrange in order to rearrange, for his undivided advantage, both the implicit and explicit terms of the so-called bargain. However, in-time, these unsuspecting governmental and military Officials inevitably become pressured into accepting terms that insult the integrity of the arrangement or bargain, as it was first produced and proposed by the Captor; and subsequently relied on, insofar as to be duly accepted by the Officials at-large. The Captor then proceeds at a glacial pace with numerous fits and starts woven into the equation as if to indefinitely extend the proposed time-frame of the subject transaction or mission. This construct is aided by the indecent arts of duplicity, leverage and craft, as well as other schemes, prearranged or improvised, to buy time. This desultory process matched with disjointed execution caused the upper echelon Officials and Ministerial agents, with whom the Captor would deal, to have their expectations uniformly vexed into a unnerving runaway case of urgency fueled by panic, which in turn would elevated to exasperating desperation, which history teaches us will predictably descend to contemptuous submission to a forced acceptance of terms far more onerous than those originally proposed by the Captor.

The Captor’s formulaic policy of serving his insatiable greed for fortune and adulation; these overarching objectives and warped principles were the ruling passions of his life, were expedited by the tactical agents of temporization and intimidation; collectively, his control mechanisms. The resentment on the part of the Officials would invariably rise to a level of extreme dismay, their confidences of which were commonly retailed to Joe with all deliberate circumspection as well as with all the inherent complex histories and circumstances in-tact. This is because Joe too had been one of those unfortunate military Officials who were beguiled in much the same fashion; and Joe, wary of the intrigues witnessed with discernment far more occurrences than anyone else. Therefore, Joe can lay claim to the congruency of his empathy to that of his compassion in terms replete with an overcompensating mutuality of incidents and effects, which gained him the trust of many Officials in connection with the Captor. Joe is most able, by experience and interest, to articulate and palpably commiserate in-kind with the same appreciable confidence given to himself by other injured Officials. The Captor, so captivated by his smugness, remains, woefully oblivious or perpetual in-denial; as Joe and his Band of hero’s prefers to have it, for a time, until such time that the “Temporizer” is temporized, and in the doing, hung by his own petard.

his name is joe │ installment 3

Impervious Integrity

This scene of havoc and destitution left Joe and his platoon little to hope for and much to fear from their flagitious Captor, a cross between an over-manipulative Scrooge by preference and an ultra-controlling Machiavellian by policy. Joe and his platoon, on the other hand, come nearer to correspondence to that of Charles Dickens’ Cratchit in circumstance and a Washingtonian by emulation−so be it; but in the case of their pure and proper humanity having so recently been re-established on the looming ruins of their Captor’s ill-fated despotism, the duties of their former occupations and employments did tremble precariously on the edge of a precipice where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall.  Although the manifold inconvenience of their daunting responsibilities were aggravated by the sublime character of the love they had, but could not embrace, respecting their grieving families and steadfast friends, they nevertheless resolved to adhere to their moral and religious principles rather than to be drawn within the lineaments of their Captor’s evil doings, at any price.

In all their perilous events, they absorbed with unheralded dignity the exponential costs that suffering brings; and counterwise, rejected out of hand, a slew of temptations that were intended to compromise one against the another for mere relief or advantage.  If Joe were to recount the all too regular stories exampling their impervious integrity, the circumstantial parallels would be a tedious repetition of the same causes and effects.  Joe explained to me that though he remained conscious of his office, and considerate of the expectations of his fellow comrades, he could never be seduced from the standard of his integrity to register the unbowlderized litany of abuses sustained by himself and his band-of-brothers.  His reasoning was that he did not want a misconstruction put on the telling, because it might act as a subtle solicitation for glory−or worse, work as an importunate plea for the repugnant notion of sympathy or its damnable relation, pity.

Shocking Ramifications

After many intolerable years of having to endure an all-consuming captivity that comprehended the fairest parts of their livelihood’s, and with no little apprehension, and with almost as many years of planning, they achieved the daunting prospect of an incomparably daring escape from their Captor who imprisoned them to his will.  Since their escape, Joe’s venerable psychologist unequivocally denominated both the categorization of their Captor as a “psychopath”, and the frightful predicament of their captivity as a “modern-day concentration camp”; based on Joe’s candid summarization to him, wherefore Joe described in plain terms their episodic ordeal.  Like the protagonist in Homer’s “Odysseus”, they too returned home bewildered strangers to their families, after they have suffered the slings and arrows of their outrageous fortune, and no less their own, is for them, the most painful shock that their flesh was ever air to.  They have much to protect, enormities to salvage, horrific memories to erase and even more to fill, forgotten bridges to rediscover, sad conditions to improve, confusions to enlighten, their children to re-ingratiate, filial bonds to repair, marriages to reconstruct, and they can ill afford a question to themselves as whether “to be or not to be”: never to shuffle off their mortal coil upon their own permission.  Their families’ sufferings during the forced interregnum of their domestic life, which occurred during the span between the vitality of our stolen prime and the milestone in-sight of their respective jubilee’s, has been commended to the hallowed scales of law and equity for its recalibration, and their overdue rectification. Withal Joe and his band-of-brothers shall abide the determination of law, and at the same time fight for the dearest of human rights, freedom and property; and as for the enmity of his former Captor, he shall never again exclude his band-of-brothers, or anyone, from the universal benefits of peace, toleration, and respect.

his name is joe │ installment 2

 Freedom Commandeered

The patrimony of our domestic happiness redounds to us in a civilized age fortified by justice, liberty, and civil freedoms. These endowments have been perfected by the recognition of our inalienable rights, which was comprehended and bravely established, in letters patent, by our Founding Fathers. The pride of citizenship and common dignity can be measured alternatively, as it were, by private judgment according to the definite rule of law, or by the standard of ethics employed in both civil and corporate governance; or, more so, by the degree of patriotism that accords the common defense of our country. These cherished constructs of our civilization invite the interpolation of overarching ideals that are guided by a number of factors, including: the influence of pure reason, the manner of our ingrained traditions; and the luxury to accept and embrace each other’s individualistic propensities, without fear of ridicule or chastisement.

The nominal precepts denominated above underscore and give expression to freedom; and not just for freedom’s sake; but for whom freedom frees, and what it means to those who lose, want or have their freedom taken, a fortiori restored. The interpretations, iterations and modalities of freedom proliferate within the various streams of communication that allow for unfettered and exemplary human intercourse. Freedom, in and of itself, exists within, and defines withal, the imperfect hope of a free society. A free society shall, in its own course, nourish the will, fortify the strength, and lift up the spirits of each member thereof in order that each constituent may indulge the privilege of license and liberty, thusly afforded. This Constitutional right (though I deem it a privilege) was and continues to be, no doubt, paid for in patriotic blood, so that every generation, heretofore and henceforth, may live free to pursue their dreams and fulfill their happy aspirations.

Howsoever Joe and his band-of-brothers entered the fray of uncertainty, they proudly mantled the heritage of their country’s hard-won license and liberties upon their honor as they took up our respected charges, as befitting their duty.  Their blind obediance and loyalty were nevertheless compromised by this roguish Captor, a duplicitous patriot doubling as a profiteer, whose dissembling pretenses were entirely self-serving.  Unbeknownst to the commanders at-large, of every rank and stripe, Joe and is platoon were unceremoniously waylaid and carried off by this pestiferous Captor, who sought to appropriate from them their dream for a better life for themselves and their families.  Each one of them was interviewed and singled-out for a specific purpose, only to be rudely vitiated, and then suffer the unwarranted breach of the Captor’s hollow promises, followed by a ruthless subjugation to impossibly hard conditions.  They were uniformly denied their liberties in order to satisfy his own nefarius designs of extortion, plunder and rapine; and yet they swore amongst ourselves that they would one day band together and expose this infiltrating charlatan who finagled and cajouled his way into the  upper echelons of power, and exact upon him the full measure of his just deserts in accordance with his perpetrations.

Because, it can be argued that any member of a free society can just as easily suffer the same brand of criminal extortion level to the measure of their own dreams; if the would-be perpetrator, exampled by their former Captor, is not checked in his career.  They, unfortunately, were uniformly deprived of the patrimony that is the stars and stripes, the very fabric of freedom, by an overbearing, far-reaching confidence man, their Captor, who posed as the deadly occupying force in their lives. He is the archetypal con-man, a rival for history’s most notorious villains, through and through. By way of characterization, this villain is so overweening with effusive impunity, and so vulgar with his spewing confidence, that he cannot avoid parading his con-artistry skills to the point where he cons himself more than he cons anyone else; giving him the confidence to con others into believing that the lies he conned himself into believing are believable.

The Captor successfully underwrote his prodigious rise in prosperity to a height beyond the reach of his own ability; funded, in great part, by his wholesale extortion of Joe’s and his band’s superior know-how and profitable exertions derived from their extreme sacrifices. Yet their arduous labors and exemplifications were, in-time, contrived for the undoing rather than to sustain a mocked-allegiance to this despicable tyrant.  They excelled in the practice of what is meant to be a true parergon; always exceeding the expectation, but not without a red-herring skillfully deployed, though subtlety advertised, for their collective escape, God willing. The execution of their designs demanded an audacious dethroning of the tyrant, as it were, by ceremoniously ungilding his lies, to expose the base depravity of this monstrous despot; who established himself, and operated within, the plain sight of accomplished society.

The Captor relished to withhold their liberties and savored to restrict their freedoms, upon pain of death and worse, for his sole enjoyment, leaving them bereft of their dignity and stripped of their honor as dutiful soldiers.  And by a plethora of calculated schemes the Captor managed to separate them from their expectations, and imprison us in a condition that was too horrible for Joe to recall, and even more infested with consternations to believe. Nevertheless, their adamant patriotism remained steeled in tradition, and their eternal hopes lay indelibly tempered in unshakable faith. Once imprisoned to his treatment with their freedom commandeered, his insatiable appetite to devour their humanization, a custom emblematic his modus operandi, worked to defraud them out of their just patrimony, with unconscionable duplicity: a crime tantamount to nothing less than hi-jacking the sanctity of the American dream.

his name is joe │ installment 1

Communicating Experience

Words, no matter how we color or accentuate them, are in and of themselves, at times, a woefully inadequate agent or disadvantaged surrogate for communicating the experience of experience to others who have not had the experience; especially those touching war.  For most people words are employed, usually by default, often by choice, and sometimes by necessity for translating experience to others through the prism of languaged communication that is, however, wont to distort, refract and otherwise obliquely reflect experiences.  For the most part, anytime anyone wishes to give expression to experience, experience must be reduced to words; the reservoir of which is compiled and catalogued in languages, and configurable to the common practice of relating experiences, and no less adaptable for the conveyance of one’s thoughts, as far as words will allow.  I shall use words built upon words to unpack the experiences of one certain Joe, a former Prisoner-of-War, a Hero’s Hero. Suffice it to say that words alone can, at best, dispense a cursory justice to the experiences experienced by Joe, my closest friend, whose anonymity is as costly to risk as it is beneficial to insure. In order to relate Joe’s extraordinary experience I shall endeavor to transfer the eidetic accounts locked in Joe’s memory; so that others can appreciate, incorporate, absorb, and validate his salutary dedication to Flag and Country: not for himself, but for those he served with; and by this narrative, I present Joe’s story. Mine is the honor to serve Joe and all whom he represents.

As for me the challenge to communicate effectively, and no less faithfully, is as daunting in scope due to myriad complexities, as it is singular in content due to the voluminous particularities; but in all events, an esteemed privilege conferred on me by Joe. How might I effectively describe Joe’s experiences, such as: What it is like to be cheated out of a life’s worth of hoped for memories? What it is like to be subjected to ’round-the-clock forced labor? What it is like to be forcibly separated from your family and friends for nearly a half-generation? What it is like to be someone’s prisoner or slave? What does the experience feel like to have your enemy threaten your life, and the lives of your children, while you remain a P.O.W.? What about being hectored with torments like destroying all that you own, all you long and dream for – like going home to your wife and children? What does the experience feel like to watch your fellow comrades suffer similar consequences with nothing to offer each other but the faint mutuality of empathetic commiseration? What it is like to fail the one you love without recourse to remedy? What it is like to have the horrors of war foisted into your experiences that reshape, redefine and haunt your life forever?

Joe is constrained by the moral imperative attendant to conscious duty that cries out for the retailing of the immeasurable sufferings endured by his fellow veterans (alive and passed), and the counter-poising pain concomitant with his recalling, reliving and recounting of unspeakable atrocities. The gauntlet that Joe has chosen to run carries with it the potential for him to incur an utterly complete emotional and mental melt-down, as he traverses anxiously up the Everest of his fears fearing his sanity will be swallowed up by an irreparable case of post-traumatic-syndrome, before he can top the summit of his daunting expedition. Insofar as the scores of enlistees that were charged to Joe’s command or consigned to his refuge under the title of P.O.W., as the case turned awry, now, look to Joe again to recruit the command of his voice to tell their story. They themselves cannot bear the burden or sustain, with any confidence, a lucid coherence with the staying power enough to effectively communicate their horrific experiences to a candid world; whether for their own relief and due justice, and as much for their fallen brethren—the source of their festering wounds—wounds that bleed out what little hope remains.

The entirety of Joe’s existence has reached a culminating point where he feels he must enter the breach once more and persuade, and even convince others of their histories. The accounts of Joe’s testimony; are for naught, save the telling, the conveying, and the communicating of their collective experiences regarding their notorious Captor – the perpetrator of great sufferings and untold miseries. So there stands Joe, stepping out from the ranks of this Band-of-Brothers, women included, shall disappoint the avarice, or at least the peculation, of their implacable foe. Nevertheless, Joe aims to succeed as well as help those who cannot help themselves in this regard, for he shall not relent until the Captor who plied the age-old tactic of divide and conquer is thoroughly subdued. If Joe appears alone it is because his supporters are behind him, hidden in single file, ready to fan out to show their strength and resolve, and reclaim their own dignity that was stolen from them by a most roguish evil-doer—whom Joe stickles not to aver that such-a-one is cater-cousin to Lucifer. The day is coming when this Band-of-Brothers shall celebrate their liberation and denounce this fiend who worships perpetually at the Temple of Mammon, which he, the Captor, is nowhere to be discovered in the Book of Life.