From NRO’s Tank blog, a great story about a fellow member of the tribe from my hometown, who now commands the USS Harry S Truman:
… Though decades of flying and sea duty have given [Capt. Herman “Herm” Shelanski] the experience of command, he makes no secret of the fact that a big part of who he is can be traced back to his origins. Shelanski is the grandson of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to the United States who settled in Philadelphia in the early 20th century. Asked what would prompt the son of a prominent doctor, who was a bar mitzvah at Har Zion Temple and a graduate of Lower Merion High School in the 1970s to join the Navy, Shelanski answers simply: “I always wanted to serve my country. And a lot of that has do to with being Jewish.” Military service was hardly the norm for young middle-class Jews in the 1970s, but Shelanski says the message of pride and patriotism in America was a big part of his upbringing. On his desk in his spacious and luxurious in-board cabin – used mostly for dinners and ceremonies – are pictures of his father, Morris, who served as a doctor in the Navy during World War II, and a cousin who was a naval aviator. Their example of service was and remains important to the captain. “I knew that I was fortunate. A lot of our family died in the Holocaust. It makes me think of what could have happened if we hadn’t come to America,” he says. “I wanted to give back to this country. I also understood that the strength of the United States is directly proportional to the safety of Israel.” …
Other notable LM alums include Hap Arnold, the namesake of the school’s athletic fields, Alexander Haig, whose affiliation the school doesn’t seem to publicize, and, of course, Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, I suspect it’s far more likely that the school will name a building after Kobe than Shelanski.
