Jack Pershing's 'Wicked' Convention

Preamble:- No one describes unadulterated pain better than KoRn, NuMetal's Grunge specialist. ‘Wicked’ is an appropriate ensemble that pans out to dregs as they stand before their open grave and stare aghast at fresh pig-entrails with a prospect of having the slosh smother their dead bodies in order to deny them a martyr’s paradise and while ‘No Place To Hide’ captures Pershing’s wicked execution convention ‘Twist’ is the teaser that conjures up the proverbial bullet dipped in pig blood.

In lieu of evidence, the commentary is consigned to the category or, as the radical Islamist would prefer, the dustbin of Urban Legends. Although the initial story is personalized to the narrative, even an established historian, let alone a victim, would not survive the prevailing atmosphere by being politically or religiously incorrect.

The story alludes to a source whose family member was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf but returned unharmed without exchange of the conventional ransom due to the gumption and ingenuity of a negotiator in the Philippine military.

The military man, privately engaged by the family of the victim, was well versed with the pressure points and the soft underbelly of the religious doctrine to which the kidnappers subscribed. He responded in stealth by simply apprehending key family members of the perpetrators and threatening to boil them alive in pig fat if the victim was not immediately released. Cell-phone clips of the shell-shocked members gagged in a vat of oil were sufficient to move the ideologically driven perpetrators to release the victim.

Legend has it that the Filipino tactician, who circumvented standard operating procedure, was not the first ‘incorrect’ military person on Philippine soil.

A century ago General John Jack Pershing was attributed to a similar legend involving Moro terrorists who proliferated in Southern Philippines as America replaced Spain as the colonial power inheriting the dread of the Moro that drained the patience of the outgoing Spanish.

The omnipresent pig was Pershing’s trump card in dealing with the scourge. Legend has it that the pragmatic General rounded up and gunned down 49 out of 50 dregs, threw the bodies into an open grave and covered them with a slosh of pig entrails before burying the bloody mess. The bullets used in the execution were dipped in pig blood for good measure. The thing is, the single terrorist he kept alive was forced to watch aghast the whole spectacle.

The poor bastard was purposefully set free to relay to fellow members the General’s execution convention and strangely enough, the Moro penchant for kidnapping and terrorizing the Filipino population ceased the next half-century.

A cold fact that emanates from the legend is that Islamic terrorism, active before Pershing’s tenure was relatively dormant for a good part of the twentieth century during his appointment.

David Petraeus is reminded of Pershing’s peculiarity of style every time the Taliban does their thing but unfortunately, as Allen West would say, hairdressers drafted the Rules of Engagement. His military ancestor, inspired by the principle of Occam’s Razor, said to his soldiers “No more assumptions should be made than are necessary and yet, despite our powers of reason, we miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points in solving this particular doctrinal issue.

Urban Legends notwithstanding, the unusual operating procedure of Pershing and his copycat Filipino counterpart is a foreboding pre-intimidation tactic against a diehard Islamic terrorist. 

The official Pershing documentary from the Department of Defense is lengthy and a tad boring as history always is. It happens to be the official account of the revered American where understandably, being the stuff of legends to which the politically correct historian holds sway, there is nothing in it about pig fat.

Historian Dr. Frank Vandiver and author of Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing had this to say, "The story is apocryphal. I never found any indication that it was true in extensive research on his Moro experiences. It would have run completely against his character."

Words, Videography - Tommy Peters  (on YouTube)

(The post is dedicated to Talithaquom. The KoRn video is made on a Mac with CoverVersion’s Cuboid and Screenflow while Pershing’s 1963 Documentary is in the public domain (Department of Defense PIN 30150). Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without express permission of copyright owners)