Entry #35: March 14, 2006

Camp Buehring, Kuwait (Somewhere near the Iraq border)

With the recent passing of my grandfather, Preston Quincy Long, I have set about to reread a book that entails a part of my family history and its legacy that entwines the heritage of the United States and that of the American South. “Born Fighting”, by former Secretary of the Navy James Webb, describes the history of the Scots-Irish, a proud, yet forgotten sociological group that is often reviled by the rest of America as ‘rednecks’.

To give a quick history of the Scots-Irish, they, we, me, originated in the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands, fighting the English and Romans along the border and Hadrian’s wall since the advent of the Dark Ages, all the while refusing to be conquered. The Scots-Irish also moved to the Ulster counties of Ireland (now presently Northern Ireland and where the Irish part of the name comes in), where bitter resentment and conflict ensued between the Protestants and Catholics. The next migration of the Scots-Irish was to America, where the vast majority of them settled in the American South. Proud, mostly poor, adventurous, and hardened warriors, the Scots-Irish have formed the crux of the South. They fought all of America’s wars, from the American Revolution up to the present Iraq war.

What is the Scots-Irish? What are we? On the whole, we are a conservative group, with a deeply religious foundation (derived from Scottish Calvinism), a culture who holds the Second Amendment dear, battle-hardened through centuries of warfare, and proud, hard-working people of the earth. We are called rednecks because our fathers, grandfathers, and great-greats worked the soil in the sun turning the backs of their necks a scarlet hue. We are chided as being simple people, but we have strong values that this nation was founded on. Our ideals of honor, equality, and individualism ring true in the history of the United States.

Born fighting. What does this mean? We were born fighting the Romans, who wanted to expand their empire, born fighting the English, who wanted our land and to rule us, born fighting the Irish Catholics, who resented the intrusion of our brand of religion, born fighting the English again, who wanted to rule us from afar, born fighting the North, who wanted to overrule our sovereignty, born fighting the Germans, who wanted to rule the world, and born fighting terrorists, who hate us for everything we are.

In all of our country’s wars, the Scots-Irish have been at the forefront in disproportionate numbers. Even in my brigade amongst the Soldiers, I see a myriad of names bearing their Scots-Irish surnames on their right chest, Conway, McFadden, Wallace, Long.

Our legacy was tarnished by the Civil War in which we were branded racists, even though the overwhelming majority of Scots-Irish soldiers were too poor to own slaves. We stood proudly by Lee at Appomattox, returning to our homes to find a shattered land, invaded by carpetbaggers. We suffered through the Great Depression, which hit the South harder than most other regions. We rose out of that to carve for ourselves and our nation, the most powerful country that ever existed.

Born fighting. Never popular, always proud. My lineage is full of Warrior-Poets, who fought for their beliefs, their land, and to protect those values they have long struggled to uphold, not just in wars, but in politics, in business, and in their homes. I am but a continuation of tradition tied to my heritage. And so the Soldier’s life continues…