A revealing Visit to Finland

As a military historian specializing in aviation, aerospace, and undersea warfare, I was quite pleased when being hosted by the Finns in the mid-1990s for a tour of the Finnish Defense Establishment and several Finninsh Army and Air Force installations – a seek that included visits to several Winter War battlefields and to the Air Force Acamedy where I addressed an assembly of Finnish fighter pilots and shared dinner with them.

During my visit, I met a wide range of Finns in several of their cities and defense organizations. To say that this experience offered an illuminatinf insight into the Finnish national character would be an undestatement. I even took sauna with several luminaries of the Finnish National Defense Establishment.

In short, I gained an in-depth, if necessarily condensed, familiarity with the Finnish people and deep appreciation for their extraordinary national character.

Among the many Finns of note I encountered was Onni Maatanen, a recipient of the esteemed Mannerheim Cross during the Winter War against the Soviet invaderes, who graciously welcomed me into his home.

My week in Finland ended all too soon, but I can attest to the unique greatness of the Finnish people and their remarkable "sisu" – that indomitable spirit. Finland is a fascinating nation, and there is much the West can still learn from the stolid, reserved, yet tenacious Finnish people, especially as we once again find ourselves facing the Russian Bear under Vladimir Putin.

It would be wonderful to see you publish more articles in future issues about the amazing Scandinavians, who, along with German immigrants, have contributed so much to our great American nation. It is all too easy, in these days of DEI, critical theory, and inclusion dogma, to overlook them.

As the young Finnish airforce pilots reminded me at their Air Force Academy: "Ala puhu paskaa!" ("Don't talk crap!").

It's a lesson we would do well to remember evry day – as the Communist Parties in China and Russia continue to trample on human rights and basic freedoms, and as radical leftists here at home persist in replacing reality with delusion.

Regarding this post about Finland by Christopher Carey, he mentioned the 1939-1940 Winter War to which the Finns fought heroically against an invasion by the Soviet Union.

My grandparents came from Finland in 1899 and 1904. I have 98% Finish DNA. Finns have a Uralic language but are genetically related to Swedes, other Scandinavians, and Germans. 

To regain land lost to the Soviet invaders, Finland fought a second war against them (1841-1944). The Finns were allied with Germany, which had helped Finland in 1918 to gain independence from Lenin's Soviet Russia.

Some Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes did join the Viking Division of the Waffen SS to fight Stalin's USSR, but not for Hitler or against the Jews.

Finland proclaimed its opposition to Nazism and that it wasn't against Britain or the United States. Finland also sent its 4,000 Jewish citizens to neutral Sweden to protect them from the Nazis. Not many people know that.

Some of my cousins are ethnic Jews because my paternal grandfather's niece married a Jew. I would never defend or praise the horrors of the Holocaust that Hitler and other Nazis caused.

"Rauha" is the Finnish word for peace. God will bring it soon the this violent world.