So here I am slogging my way through the Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) of one Douglas MacArthur, our forum's favorite whipping boy, and I have made it all the way up to page 33 where I am stopped cold. Because that page-stuck in the middle of internal correspondence concerning MacArthur's potential promotion to major general-has been withheld from the file under an FOIA exemption concerning national security information someone in government wishes to remain classified. A piece of government paper that is dated November 18th, 1918, and the thing is apparently too secret to reveal a hundred years later. I am not precisely sure when MacArthur's OMPF was first made available to researchers, let alone the general public, but probably we are talking a couple of decades here, if not more, so this restriction was probably imposed a long while back. Since I have barely started on the file (only 4,000 more pages to go!), I have no idea if there are any more such deletions awaiting me. I remain curious about this deletion though. What the heck could this blank page possibly contain which has remained classified ever since, for a century?
Not another MacArthur was a jerk thread!
- Thread starter Locke01
- Start date
Derek Pullem
Donor
MacArthur was promoted brevet to command a division on 10th November and the war ended on the 11th. By the 22nd we was back to commanding a brigade.
I doubt if there is any mystery behind this missing page - just a general "do not promote anyone the war is over" message
I doubt if there is any mystery behind this missing page - just a general "do not promote anyone the war is over" message
A couple decades ago I read a magazine article examining the accusation that one of Macs medals for heroism under fire in 1918, was infact cited for a date and time Mac spent the entire day safe in a command bunker. The author was fairly confident he had collaborated this accusation. I have no idea what the truth is here, but Mac made some enemies along the way, and had some very powerful friends as well.
Nah, it definitely isn't that. The hold on postwar promotions wasn't classified. I doubt very much that the missing page contains anything worth keeping secret decades after the fact. My curiosity, regardless, continues unabated.
I mean he did threaten to bomb the fuck out of China during the Korean War which is a retarded thing to say if you ask me.....
But overall I will say he did liberate the Philippines during World War II, so that is a good thing he did.
But overall I will say he did liberate the Philippines during World War II, so that is a good thing he did.