3,456 pornographic images at Gettysburg?

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, October 23, 2009 - 2:47 PM Share

I know that human flesh and minds are weak, and I am also a first amendment fundamentalist. Even so, my stomach turns at the revelation that the superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park was a porn fiend on his official computer. I mean, this is the home of Pickett's Charge, of Chamberlain and the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, and one of Lincoln's most stirring speeches. It also is where my wife and I had our first great date on a quiet, chilly November day about 30 years ago. We had a lovely picnic at the high water mark of the Confederacy.

I hope he gets re-assigned to Guam or something.

Flickr user: David C. Foster 

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CASH

3:45 PM ET

October 23, 2009

Please. Let's not go

Please. Let's not go overboard here.

The guy's an idiot for having porn on his work computer if, for no other reason than it effectively ends his career. Which he had to have known.

But exactly how is that related to what took place on the battlefield?

US military personnel have to be among the world's heaviest consumers of porn and probably always have been. There's no reason to think the soldiers who fell at Gettysburg were any different. (I'm not sure what mid-19th c. porn consisted of, but I sure it existed.)

Let's not get all pious and sanctimonious about porn just because Gettysburg was an important battle. We'll just end up sounding like a raving rightwinger from South Carolina who screams about the misdeeds of lefties as a way to feel better about and divert attention from the fact that he's sleazing it up with someone who's not his spouse.

 

BRETT

3:57 PM ET

October 23, 2009

US military personnel have to

US military personnel have to be among the world's heaviest consumers of porn and probably always have been. There's no reason to think the soldiers who fell at Gettysburg were any different.

That reminds me of what one of my friends - who is a Navy ROTC guy - told me when he did a stint on a submarine. Lots and lots of pornography.

I think the main issue is that the guy was looking at it on his work computer, and presumably while at work.

 

STARBUCK

4:11 PM ET

October 23, 2009

Now, I'll be the first to

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I love porn. But I make sure I keep all my porn on my personal computer and not on my government laptop. Did this guy not know that Big Brother is always monitoring your computer?

 

RPM

4:46 PM ET

October 23, 2009

Joshua Chamberlain

Sort of regret you used his picture to illustrate the post.

And how weird is it that the two words I have to enter in the security field are 'falwell' and 'Photographs?'

 

PAUL G

2:17 AM ET

October 24, 2009

Yeah. What Starbuck said. And

Yeah. What Starbuck said. And the poor guy’s added explanation that he was going through some tough times personally and professionally seemed lame. But really, did the public need to know about this? Wasn’t it enough that he was being reassigned, that his professional life was effectively over? Did his family have to share publicly in his embarrassment? Wasn’t there anything more newsworthy for the Post to print? If there wasn’t anything in the entire world more newsworthy than this, then couldn’t they have used those column inches for a public service ad? And, by the way, Tom, what does this have to do with national security (“Tom Ricks’s daily take on national security” — says so right at the top of the page)? I guess that this is one of those times when journalism just had to take precedence over your current professional interest. Color me disappointed.

 

TOM RICKS

2:52 AM ET

October 24, 2009

I disagree

Gettysburg was arguably the most important battle in our country's history. If the guy in charge of preserving that battlefield is instead watching porn, yeah, I think that's bothersome and interesting.
Best,
Tom

 

SCHMEDLAP

3:48 AM ET

October 24, 2009

At least it wasn't SIPR

On my last deployment, our SIGO was "reminding" us to not charge iPods by plugging them in to the USB port of a SIPR laptop (not sure what idiot would be doing that anyway). His lecture kind of fell flat when a Major spoke up and said, "Hold on a second. We have over 20 GB of porn on our SIPR network and you're lecturing us on the danger of charging a fricken iPod?" That 20GB figure was a lowball estimate.

 

STARBUCK

6:16 PM ET

October 24, 2009

What idiot would do that?

What idiot would do that? How about my lieutenant (CHEMO)! After he did that, we confiscated the iPod and, upon scanning it, determined it had no classified data and gave it back to him--we almost had to destroy it. A few days later, we find it plugged into a NIPR computer. I wonder how many writing assignments it takes in order to realize that the "no USB device" policy is serious.

 

BRETT

10:29 PM ET

October 26, 2009

You mean they actually kept

You mean they actually kept it on the network? At least in my friend's case, they kept it on their own small DVD players and CDs (he said the chief showed him a holder he had with dozens of cds - all porn).

 

JUPITER

4:22 AM ET

October 24, 2009

Hold on a second...

What's wrong with Guam?

 

REUBEN HINTZ

2:46 PM ET

October 25, 2009

Amen

Seriously Tom, no shortage of blood spilt there:

http://www.nps.gov/wapa/index.htm

 

TOM RICKS

8:42 PM ET

October 25, 2009

Yeah, I know

Guam probably had the worst war museum I've ever visited.

On the other hand, at the air base on the north end of the island, I was struck to see "Arc Light Blvd."

Best,
Tom

 

REUBEN HINTZ

1:48 AM ET

October 26, 2009

Touche'

Agreed. At least as of OCT '07 the (brand new) NPS Museum was pretty thin on the ground. The one up in Saipan, oddly, is much better.

Anderson AFB AMC terminal has a great display room with lots of Linebacker II artifacts.

 

KEVIN IN SC

3:54 PM ET

October 26, 2009

There's one of those (Arc

There's one of those (Arc Light) on Al Udeid AB, too. Not a lot of imagination shown in the naming conventions (Rolling Thunder, 9/11, etc.) on the base.

 

GRANT

6:38 AM ET

October 24, 2009

Frankly I couldn't care less

Frankly I couldn't care less about the pornography. If he was acting irresponsibly and wasting military time and money reassign or demote him, that's all there is to it. Of far more interest to me is the mention in the attached article of how a project he pushed through ultimately cost more than three times what it was supposed to. Frankly, that is of far more importance to foreign policy (which is theoretically what this site is for) than explicit images.

 

MIKEDC

7:33 PM ET

October 24, 2009

The devil makes play with idle hands

Isn't the presence of that much porn a pretty good indication that he was wasting time.

(And an indication of why the project was 3x over budget).

 

GRANT

12:57 AM ET

October 27, 2009

Yes, but it isn't a matter of

Yes, but it isn't a matter of moral problems for me so much as a question of efficiency and professionalism. If he had been working at my college and used a college computer to view pornography during work hours I would be just as irate as if it were at Gettysburg. By the same token I would be just as furious if he were illegally downloading several gigabytes of music onto a college computer not because of copyright but because of the fact that it was taking up space on a college computer.

 

CHARLESF

9:33 AM ET

October 24, 2009

Please... Only in America can

Please... Only in America can such a matter become a "news story". What does this yellow press journalism have to do with national security?

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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