I imagine the meaning of Geronimo was the exclamation “Geronimo!” One dictionary defines it as “used to express exhilaration when leaping or moving quickly. – origin Second World War: adopted as a slogan by US paratroopers, by assoc. with the Apache chief Geronimo.
Two sites repeat the story of the exclamation, tracing it to Army soldiers learning to become the first paratroopers in 1940. At that time the idea of troop deployment by parachute was new, and the men that were learning to do it were also, in some ways, inventing it. Purportedly after watching the 1939 film Geronimo, Private Aubrey Eberhardt decided to use the famous Indian fighter’s name as a shout, to show he had courage and was not afraid of the jump. And so he picked the name of the Apache chief, played in the film by Victor Daniels (well known to ‘30s audiences as the Chief Thunder Cloud who played the role of Tonto in the 1938 Lone Ranger serial). Geronimo became the motto of the first parachute battalion, the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion (PIB), and Geronimo was on the 501st PIB insignia.
And so Navy SEALS, America’s other shock troops, perhaps whispered the old war cry as they entered the expensive compound where bin Laden had been living, near Islamabad, 100 yards from a premier Pakistani military academy, less than half a day's drive from the Afghani border, for years.
The Howard article refers to the 501st’s popularity as reason for the general acceptance of the exclamation outside the Army; it was due to “the intense media coverage of America's shock troops - the paratroopers” (Howard).
Before Victor Daniels played Geronimo for Americans on the eve of World War 2, he was played in real life by Goyahkla, the original name of the Apache military leader. After Mexican soldiers attacked an Apache camp in 1858 and killed his wife, children, and mother, Goyahkla (“he who yawns”) ruthlessly exacted revenge on the Mexican army. As he attacked (in some stories braving bullets to kill only with a knife), the Mexican soldiers called to Saint Jerome, or “Jeronimo.”
So is there any irony in calling the operation to kill bin Laden “Geronimo”? In his time, Geronimo – the Native American military leader – was certainly regarded as a terrorist, by both Mexico and the United States. He had numerous wives, a small loyal band of fighters who harassed Mexican and US villages and their military. And he was famous for both his dramatic raids, and his ability to evade capture. Mexico and the United States were said to have cooperated in his eventual capture, though like Pakistan, Mexico allowed Geronimo to operate on the Mexican side of the border for many years.
Bush the Second used to talk about bin Laden and explain that these people “hate our freedom.” This explains al Qaeda and bin Laden about as well as Geronimo’s motivations for fighting two national armies for 28 years were understood by the average US newspaper circa 1886:
The Apache Chief Geronimo and the surviving members of his band, who recently killed by torture and inhuman butchery 170 persons, many of whom were women, are now in custody. The people of Arizona and New Mexico are very indignant, and will oppose the usual course of the military authorities in allowing them to return to their reservations unpunished.
(the Indiana Progress, Thursday, February 11, 1886)
When Hon. Carl Schurz was secretary of the interior, in one of his reports he characterizes the Apaches as "bad Indians." That was several years ago. They have not improved in behavior since. For a year and a half Chief Geronimo and his band of Apaches have been terrorizing the southwest.
(Mitchell Daily Republican, Friday, February 12, 1886)
I’m not mourning the death of bin Laden, particularly. His name will live on and circulate through any number of mythic and factual accounts, as a terrorist who planned the deaths of 2752 human beings, mostly civilians, and as someone who fought back against the imperial forces, against the terror of an occupying force. It is unlikely, though, that any time soon he’ll be the hero of an American Hollywood action film that turns his legacy from a terrorist into a freedom fighter, never mind becoming the word our shock troops use as they leap out of planes, or kids use as they jump from the couch to the floor, repeating in play the geopolitical games played for real, far away, long ago and today.
Geronimo-E. KIA.
Sources:
Howard, Ed. “Paramount's 1939 western GERONIMO... a forgotten movie with a giant legacy.” http://www.b-westerns.com/geronimo.htm
“Osama Bin Laden Operation Ended With Coded Message 'Geronimo-E KIA'”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/osama-bin-laden-operation-code-geronimo/story?id=13507836&page=3
“Submission of the Apache - The Capture of the Apache Chief Geronimo.” http://www.logoi.com/notes/capture_apache_chief_geronimo.html
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ReplyDeleteMy mother saw the prison where Geronimo was held, for some of the last years of his life, in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This was in the late twenties, early thirties. He died in 1909, she wasn't born until 1925. But his presence was still palpable to her as a young child.
ReplyDeleteit is the great full success against the terrorism........
ReplyDelete