Who publishes poems about the Pentagon? Colonel Anthony Wermuth did.

   From my time in the building, I recognize the twenty-nine caricatures
   in his Portraits from Pentagonia, or Six Laps Around the A Ring—and you
   would too. The new lieutenant, a “tree enthusiast, assigned too young,
   to see the forest.” Or the eager beaver: “Immediately one recognizes, a
   man on a quest, a man, making his mark.” Then, more darkly, the dynamo.
   He’s constantly at work, and Wermuth explains why: “Why doesn’t he go
   home? Ask a simple question; get a simple answer: He hates his family.”
   Twenty-six others follow, paired with sketches that look like a
   [1]large-language model’s fever dream of staff officer life.

   Half a century later, his caricatures still sting because they’re
   portraits of us. Outlook inboxes have replaced physical ones, but the
   types endure.

   Portraits from Pentagonia is a deep cut today. If you’re at [2]West
   Point or the [3]Army War College, you might find it on a dusty shelf.
   Otherwise, you’ll have to scour eBay like I did. But the book still
   lands. In Wermuth’s full body of work, I found not just [4]two lasting
   contributions to Army writing, but a larger lesson. His strength was
   range—choosing the right form, focus, and forum to hook readers and
   make an impact.

   A Soldier and Writer

   Wermuth’s varied approach to writing matches his varied career. He
   enlisted before commissioning as an infantry officer in 1940, led a
   battalion assaulting Kiska in the Aleutians, commanded in Korea, served
   in Vietnam, and finished commanding a brigade in Germany. He also
   taught English at West Point and later served as a special assistant to
   Chief of Staff of the Army General Harold K. Johnson—who [5]sent him
   Christmas cards for years afterward. After retiring in the late 1960s,
   Wermuth completed a PhD and continued writing, first for the
   Westinghouse Corporation and later for the Army War College’s Strategic
   Studies Institute, [6]before passing in 2001.

   Across the twenty-four years between 1955 and 1979, he published at
   least thirty-five pieces in outlets ranging from Military Review and
   Army to Harper’s and Proceedings. His first credit came as editor of
   West Point’s satire magazine The Pointer in 1939, and his last as a
   scholar of civil-military relations. Few Army authors wrote more, and
   fewer wrote in so many ways.

   Remarkable Range

   Wermuth’s remarkable range showed in his command of focus, form, and
   forum: what he wrote, how he wrote it, and where he published it.

   Just the four pieces published in 1955—his first year writing for
   publication since his days at The Pointer—show his broad range in
   topics and approach. In January, he published Portraits from Pentagonia
   (with illustrations from his friend [7]Robert [8]Rigg). This slim book
   of poems and sketches lampooned Pentagon archetypes. Two months later,
   Military Review published “[9]Mass Man and the Military Officer,” his
   essay on the postwar Army’s cultural changes. By summer he had turned
   his [10]Columbia master’s thesis into a [11]review of World War II
   novels, concluding that “the best war novels of World War II are yet to
   be written.” Before the year was out, he weighed in on language itself
   with “[12]The Split Infinitive Is Here to Stay,” closing with
   Flaubert’s dictum: “The first principle of good writing is clarity. The
   second is clarity. The third is clarity.” In that single year, Wermuth
   wrote a book and three articles with poetry, criticism, analysis, and
   plainspoken argument to reach broadly.

   1955 set the pattern for the rest of his career. Wermuth’s range lay
   not in chasing new interests but in revisiting familiar focus areas
   with new forms. He returned again and again to nuclear weapons, the
   infantry’s place on the modern battlefield, and above all, the Army’s
   people. Each time he brought a fresh approach for readers who might not
   have heard him the first time. His first and last pieces show he
   shifted forms. Portraits from Pentagonia lampooned Pentagon archetypes
   in verse and sketch, while [13]An Armored Convertible?, published in
   1979, critiqued the influx of civilians into the defense establishment
   in a 178-page academic study. In all, he wrote at least eight pieces on
   personnel policy, bringing along new audiences by switching between
   academic analysis, criticism, and humor.

   Playful, satirical dissent was one of Wermuth’s key forms. He managed
   to critique the US military’s nuclear posture in a [14]Harper’s[15]
   article—no small feat for an Army colonel—while still working for the
   chief of staff of the Army on good terms. His start editing West
   Point’s [16]The Pointer may have provided early lessons in satire that
   resurfaced in Portraits from Pentagonia and later in “[17]The
   Professional Automaton.” That later piece was my introduction to
   Wermuth. As cartoons are rare in Military Review, you can understand my
   surprise at the sketch of a toy soldier pegged to double-time. Careful
   selection of the right form and tone for each audience allowed him to
   dissent responsibly and remain credible both inside and outside the
   Army.

   Over the next twenty years, Wermuth spoke almost exclusively on Army
   issues to Army audiences in Army forums. He seemed to think carefully
   about where a piece belonged and who needed to read it. Of his
   Army-focused articles, ten ran in Military Review, six in Army, three
   in the Army War College’s Parameters, and two in Infantry.

   That range alone would be unusual today. My 2023 Military Review
   [18]analysis of military journals found that nearly all recent Army
   authors published only once—and those who published more than once
   almost always did so in a single forum. Wermuth did the opposite. His
   ideas moved between branch journals, professional reviews, and public
   magazines, proving that good writing can travel farther than its home
   audience.

   And when the debate spilled beyond the Army, he followed it. In the
   1950s, he published “[19]Ready—but Not Eager” in the Bulletin of the
   Atomic Scientists and “[20]Dollars and Sons” in the US Naval
   Institute’s Proceedings, both expressing his unease with nuclear war
   and arguing for the Army’s enduring role. His 1956 essay in Harper’s
   took that argument to a broader audience, challenging the idea that
   airpower alone could win wars. Later, as his writing grew more
   academic, he contributed to Armed Forces & Society and The Bureaucrat,
   exploring the boundaries between soldiers, civilians, and policymakers.
   Across these non-Army forums, Wermuth wrote to influence how both the
   Army and the nation thought about war.

   Wermuth’s career shows what range looks like in practice: matching form
   to focus, then choosing the forum that fits. The next question is how
   today’s writers can do the same.

   Improve Your Range

   The Pentagon’s poems that opened this piece still explain Wermuth’s
   appeal: Humor and range made his ideas stick. I could find no evidence
   that Wermuth ever met [21]Forrest Harding, but they would have seen eye
   to eye on the value of variety. In his first issue of the Mailing List,
   [22]Harding urged military writers to escape monotony by experimenting
   with “the intimate personal letter, the dialogue, and the narrative.”
   Wermuth lived that advice. His cartoons, commentary, criticism, poetry,
   and analysis show how range can make military ideas memorable.

   As today’s writers seek impact, they can borrow from his playbook.
   First, try a new form. Stories, dialogues, and profiles are rare today
   and may hook your reader. Second, explore a new focus. Connect with
   your audience by exploring a human theme, or write on a less sexy issue
   in your branch. Third, publish in a new forum. If you’ve written for
   your branch journal, try a new outlet like MWI or Military Review.
   Wermuth’s 1955 burst showed what one author could accomplish in a
   single year.

   Wermuth’s lesson extends to the journals themselves. The commentary
   article must remain our mainstay, but our journals also need [23]the
   [24]occasional surprise—a dialogue, a cartoon, a short narrative that
   keeps readers coming back. Most professional writing is broccoli: good
   for you, rarely craved. The Army needs both nutrition and flavor if its
   ideas are to spread.

   Give your readers a treat once in a while. Wermuth did.

   Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Griffiths commands 4th Battalion, 10th
   Special Forces Group (Airborne). He previously directed the [25]Harding
   Project, an Army initiative to renew professional military writing.

   The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the
   official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of
   the Army, or Department of Defense.

References

   1. https://archive.org/details/sim_army-times_1955-10-29_16_12/mode/2up?q=wermuth
   2. https://usma.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USMA_INST/1fetnv1/alma991013467629705711
   3. https://usahec.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01USAWCL_INST/aqdi8v/alma991000269809709484
   4. https://mcoecbamcoepwprd01.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/library/bibliographies/Griffiths_Annotated_Bibliography_Of_Professional_Writing_12Jul2024.pdf
   5. https://warontherocks.com/2024/12/merry-christmas-from-the-johnsons/
   6. https://defender.west-point.org/service/display.mhtml?u=12159&i=1517
   7. https://www.ausa.org/publications/soldier-futurarmy
   8. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/rigg_robert_b
   9. https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p124201coll1/id/756/page/0/inline/p124201coll1_756_0
  10. https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/4284446
  11. https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p124201coll1/id/806/rec/2
  12. https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p124201coll1/id/762/rec/1
  13. http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA078209
  14. https://harpers.org/archive/1956/07/twelve-myths-about-airpower/
  15. https://harpers.org/archive/1956/07/twelve-myths-about-airpower/
  16. https://www.westpointaog.org/news/past-in-review-the-pointer/
  17. https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p124201coll1/id/620/rec/1
  18. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/September-October-2023/Obscurity/
  19. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00963402.1956.11453747
  20. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1959/august/dollars-and-sons
  21. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/harding-project-armyauthor-profile-major-general-edwin-forrest-harding/
  22. http://archive.org/details/sim_infantry_1930-1931_1
  23. https://www.hardingproject.com/p/characterizing-army-content
  24. https://www.hardingproject.com/p/characterizing-army-content
  25. https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://www.hardingproject.com/&data=05|02|john.amble@westpoint.edu|bcc91f5be4554f65e34c08de0d1260d3|99ff8811351740a9bf1045ea0a321f0b|0|0|638962569775863109|Unknown|TWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ==|0|||&sdata=+E20qAfSKUf6/NWA3EkThHrrPztO/E7zQO0Tc3fRn5M=&reserved=0