America 1982-Chapter 337 - 26: Dennis and Turkey

The composed and strong-willed eldest son, Tony, brought great comfort to Tommy, in stark contrast to Dennis, who wasted his four years at West Point Military Academy.

Even the mention of that name gave Tommy a headache.

So when Dennis called him, Tommy couldn’t help but rub his temples lightly.

Despite the headache, Tommy had to admit that the freewheeling Dennis mingled better at school than the composed Tony. In his four years at West Point, Dennis became a notable figure and, in a sense, the spiritual leader of the West Point SSD branch.

Dennis’s achievements at West Point left the longstanding white Fraternity, the SSD Chapter, dumbfounded.

The West Point SSD members, those pampered children of the upper class who were recommended by Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Senators for a gilded education, probably had never seen such a brazen white supremacist from the lower classes, considering their most offensive act had previously been to secretly utter ’Nigger’ when no black people were around.

On Dennis’s first day at West Point, he openly called a black cadet named Glen in his squad ’Nigger’ and when challenged by an instructor, he brazenly asked whether calling someone ’Nigger’ was against American law. The instructor said that although there wasn’t a law, it was morally condemnable and should induce guilt, blah, blah, blah~

Dennis’s response was telling the instructor not to waste energy trying to persuade him as he would happily condemn himself deeply while vilifying black people. He liked to stew in guilt while doing evil.

More shocking to the SSD members was the fact that while Dennis would verbally abuse ’Niggers’, he didn’t mind sleeping with beautiful black female cadets. He immediately used cash to lure the most beautiful black girl amongst the new cadets to bed and deliberately let other black cadets witness the scene, sparking the first brawl of the year among the West Point newbies.

He discovered that after the black cadets saw him with the black girl, they would greet him: "Nigger, I’m fucking your Nigger goddess."

The provoked black new cadets swarmed him and started a fight. Dennis didn’t hit back immediately but first ran near the Fraternity house of the SSD. Only then did he turn to retaliate, fighting six on one. The enraged black students beat him like a dead dog, but as soon as the fight was over, he had the white supremacist members of SSD testify on his behalf, framing it as intentional injury. Although the academy intervened, he didn’t succeed in sending those black students to prison as he’d hoped, but their academy records were heavily marked, which practically meant no hope for promotion if they joined the military in the near future.

His other behaviors included playing the Confederate States of America’s anthem in the black students’ dorms and cultivating a small patch of cotton near the SSD Fraternity house. Whenever Glen lagged in training, he would send him to contemplate in the cotton field. Should Glen rank first, the scoundrel offered watermelon and fried chicken to him right away. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Truth be told, at that time the members of the West Point SSD couldn’t help but start gambling on when Glen would finally snap and blast Dennis’s head off with one shot during shooting training.

Even as racists themselves, they all felt Dennis was a bit much.

But what was miraculous was how Glen, the black man, became utterly compliant under Dennis’s mix of the whip and dollar bills - resembling the hardworking and compliant slaves from over a hundred years ago – astonishing the SSD members who saw in Dennis the flair of their slaver ancestors when disciplining slaves.

As a result, Dennis’s internal nickname within the West Point SSD became "Ancestor."

Without much effort, the unconventional and crazy Dennis became a core figure of the West Point SSD Chapter.

While Tony was leading the SSD in a Gentleman’s Character Movement at the Naval Academy in Maryland, Dennis, far away at West Point in New York, was just as active. During a military ethics education class at the academy, he called for West Point to launch an Appreciation for Black People campaign.

His rationale was that black people needed proper moral values and to be filled with gratitude for the great country of America. The emphasis should be on strengthening their patriotic education.

He even proposed establishing a "Black Appreciation Commando" within the military, saying that since America had given them freedom, black people must learn gratitude. He suggested that any battalion-sized military unit in the United States Army could establish a company-sized unit composed entirely of blacks so that in the event of a war, these black soldiers would, out of gratitude for the freedom granted by America, bravely lead the charge.

He also believed that after enlisting, black soldiers should volunteer for overseas service, allowing white soldiers to be stationed back in America, as a gesture of thanks to the nation.

This speech led to the West Point Cadet Moral Education Committee holding a hearing especially for him, and setting up a grand jury composed of students prepared to decide on his expulsion.

However, with 75% of the student body at West Point being white, it was extremely difficult to expel Dennis. Eventually, the 64-member white student grand jury unanimously concluded that while Cadet Dennis Herbs’s language was biased, it did not violate the U.S. Constitution or West Point’s regulations. Therefore, the academy had no right to deprive him of his duty and right to receive education and serve America.

With this, Dennis’s reputation soared, and he became a noted figure and spiritual leader in the eyes of many white cadets at West Point.

Because he did what they dared not do, he said what they dared not say.

But at the same time, the enraged black cadets kept pressuring the academy, demanding serious action against Dennis, so the authorities finally decided to cram Dennis into the exchange student program and send the bastard to the Japanese Army Military Academy as an exchange student. Out of sight, out of mind — after all, this bastard had greatly emboldened a part of the white supremacist students at West Point Military Academy.

According to West Point Military Academy’s thinking, they wouldn’t have to worry about Dennis showing up in front of them for at least half a year, but reality was cruel — in less than a month, Dennis was sent back by the Japanese Army Military Academy.

The reason was that after arriving in Japan, before any academic exchanges could begin, he got a female translator drunk at the welcome party held in the first week and then engaged in other "deep communications" with her.

When faced with the furious investigation and questioning by the academy, Dennis had the gall to claim that he thought the woman was a "panpan" the Japanese authorities had specifically arranged for him, just like the women they had provided for General MacArthur back in the day. Otherwise, she could have simply refused when he offered her drinks.

The Japanese just couldn’t tolerate such a direct insult from the bastard but were helpless to do anything, so they found an excuse that the cadet failed the medical examination upon reporting and sent Dennis back to West Point Military Academy.

When the superintendent of West Point Military Academy, Lieutenant General Willard Scott of the United States Army, saw Dennis reappearing before him, he weakly said, "My boy, having been through the harsh and bloody World War II, for the first time, I find myself wishing for war to break out, because then you would finish your studies earlier, be drafted, and vanish from my sight. I don’t know what experiences have made you so prejudiced against blacks and Japanese?"

Dennis’s response was plain and direct, "Mr. Superintendent, there are neither niggers nor Japs here, so let’s end this pretentious inquiry sooner, shall we? Your grandson, William Scott from SSD, is holding a welcome party for me, and he said, you not only burnt niggers back in the day but also burnt Japanese during the Pacific War."

Although the superintendent was thrown off balance and greeted Dennis the up-and-coming student with a curse word, he ultimately didn’t record Dennis’s experiences in Japan in his file.

Unlike Tony, who only received three pathetic options upon graduation, Dennis had 1701 choices because America has 1701 military bases overseas with 300,000 troops stationed across Europe and Asia. The superintendent’s attitude was clear: Dennis, the bastard, could go mold anywhere as long as he didn’t stay on American soil.

"I am your best friend, Tommy. Lately, I’ve been constantly reminiscing about the fun we had in our childhood. Do you remember? As a kid, I once saved your life. Without me, you would have been beaten to death by Mr. Adams," Dennis said over the phone, sincerely reminding Tommy of their childhood memories together.

Tommy nodded, "Yeah, I was almost caught by Mr. Adams. You were the first to grab me and run, so fuck, to this day Mr. Adams thinks it was me who pissed in his car’s gas tank, when in fact, it was you and Pam. I had just managed to whip out the tool for the job."

"Don’t sweat the details, Tommy. For the sake of the life I once saved, can’t you let me stay in America? I know you can do it, and I don’t want to go overseas. My brothers from SSD told me they didn’t help because you talked to them, said you’d arrange things for me, and asked them not to get involved," Dennis said to Tommy.

Tommy, massaging his temples, cursed, "Dennis, you’re lucky to be able to serve overseas as a second lieutenant, given your record. Look at what you’ve done — when your SSD brothers couldn’t pass their math exams, you tried to force your black teammate to pretend to be gay to seduce the gay black examiner. In your four years at West Point, you got seven girls and two female teachers pregnant, a record unmatched by anyone. Had I not paid for the abortions, plus your SSD brothers pulling strings to save your ass, you’d have been expelled long ago, so just fucking go overseas."

"If it must be overseas, could I go to a military base in Italy or Germany? I know you have the power to make it happen. Just donate money to those bigshots’ foundations, and they can decide where I report, right? Tommy, I don’t want to go to Japan or bases in Guam, so please, help me out," Dennis insisted, completely ignoring Tommy’s words, persistently pleading for his help.

Tommy seriously assured Dennis over the phone, "Dennis, for the sake of our die-hard friendship, of course, I’ll help you. I promise you won’t go to any of those places to mold. Trust me."

"Thank you, Tommy," Dennis sighed in relief, "I knew I could always trust you."

"Goodbye," said Tommy, hanging up the phone. Sophia handed him the paperwork: "Here is the data comparison between FOX’s KTTV in California, the flagship station of the West Coast, and the small independent stations we at BT Television have been controlling in various ways."

Tommy flipped through the information: "How many small stations willing to collaborate have Er and Big Jack convinced?"

KTTV is FOX’s flagship station in the California region and across the entire West Coast, and was the first California station to employ a black television news reporter, a move that won over many black viewers. Tommy established BT Television with a focus on black audiences, aiming to first compete with KTTV, the FOX affiliate with the most black viewers in California.

"They persuaded twenty-two small stations in the California region with a predominantly black community audience to join by investing equipment to become minor shareholders," Sophia told Tommy, but then she asked curiously,

"So, where will you send Dennis?"

Without even looking up, Tommy said, "Turkey. I think his personality fits well with that country."