Reflections & Remembrances: Memorial Day, D-Day, Today
Obviously Memorial Day was Memorial Day and we've passed it by without comment but with a lot of 
thought and reflection. The weekend after was the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy but we let that one slide as well. Now that was partly due to poor discipline or lack of energy, technical problems (we've been offair for over a week with a fried DSL modem) but mostly it was caused by a pause for reflection. That reflection was a search for something to share and say beyond the obvious or trite - not that our gratitudes shouldn't be expressed and certainly not that they are not beyond well deserved. But others said them last year and again this - as they should for now and forever, amen - and we took our shot at last year as well (). In fact we think this composite set of oped cartoons captures things as well as anything does. BtW - on that last panel and courtesy of our friends at YouTube some of the color film from WW2 and Iwo is now being shared. Here's a vidclip of the Iwo Flag Raising for real and in color.
If you haven't been in combat, and I haven't, it's impossible to truly grasp what it means to have
your life at risk that way. Let alone constantly, under strains and pressures all the time and when somebody's not shooting at you to have no sleep, poor or non-existent food, worn out clothes, to live in the mud and rain. The old joke that's not before you volunteer dig a hole in the backyard, fill it with water, go spend a few days and hire tha neighborhood maniac to take a shot at you now and again. Yet these people do it and they do it our name. Interestingly enough perhaps the best efforts to convey the chaos, fear, sudden death and general discomfort some recent Hollywood movies may capture it best (Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers, others). The scene on Omaha Beech from Private Ryan is one of the best, along with the D-Day jumps from Band of Brothers. Take a minute and refresh your memory. I've been in situations where my life or well-being was at risk, and multiple times. But never multiple times a minute or over multiple days in a row. If you haven't been there it's almost impossible to imagine. To the extent it can be conveyed by re-telling the story, and remembering that these calm and quiet recountings are in the hell here are some other heroes:
- Corpman G.E. Whalen, MOH, Iwo; Tibor Rubin, concentration camp survivor and Korean infantryman
- Sgt. Hoxie, wounded and crippled Iraq veteran; James Lockhard, civilian engineer and posthumous honoree
Going in Harm's Way 
These veterans pay a terrible price, though as they all point out, not as high as the real heroes they left behind. Why do they do it ? Well for some it's an escape, for others an adenture or a chance to make something of themselves. Sometimes it's even from boredom...at least at the start. But that's really two questions - both of them deep and profound but very different. The first one is why do they sign up. And once they are in the game why do they fight ? And for whom ? Every combat veteran we've ever heard doesn't talk about love of country, high ideals or principles or anything like that. They talk about their brothers, their family in and of arms.
We Were Soldiers is about a battalion of the 7th Calvary (yes, that 7th Calvary) that made the first helicopter assault in history and was cut off, surrounded and attacked by almost two divisions of North Vietnamese regulars in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. When the landing zone got to hot Hal Moore, the CO, closed it with the obvious risk that his battalion would suffer Custer's fate as well. What saved them was the pilots of the helicopter company who returned, under fire and in the darkness to keep bringing in food, ammo, water and take out the wounded. More specifically it was Bruce (Snake) Crandall and Ed (Too Tall) Freeman. Both of whom were, years later, eventually awarded the MOH for going far beyond and beyond the call of duty. But let's let Snake and Too Tall tell - again in the laconic, laid-back fashion of the veteran. If you want to know what it was "really" like go watch the movie.
They went, prepared to sacrifice their lives, to save their family. Greater love hath no man than a mother cat prepared to die to protect her kittens. Greater love hath no man...
And if you want a little YT on how some folks think about it...Gary Owen: the 7th at Ia Drang or the 7th: Frontier to Baghdad.
Signing Up
Like we said, there's being there and going there. Why do they go ? You can list the reasons as we've done and be as cynical as you like. And thruout history being a soldier has often been a cynical thing to be for many reasons. But still...and especially in our system people don't fight for loot or because the king said so or to ransack a city. They fight because they see it as part of their duty to the nation. Time filmed the crew of the Lincoln repeating the greatest words ever said about the purposes of the nation.
When we fought the Civil War the survival of the US was at stake but so to was the entire notion of democracy. That a government of the people, by the people and for the people could survive, work and eventually prosper.[If the Time server is malfunctioning you can either search for USS Lincoln or try this URL].
When the crew of the Lincoln goes to see the are putting themselves in harms' way for the same principles that their forefathers spent three of the bloodiest days in American history fighting for, with the issue in doubt. The Republic almost died in those three days and is a tribute to the courage, tenacity and dedication of all our veterans that we can watch our Memorial Day picnics. If you haven't read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address recently we urge you to; years ago we gave the Memorial Day recital in a role as CO of the local NJROTC unit (since Dad was a decorated veteran himself he set it up thru the Legion). One of my great regrets in life is that then I didn't know what I was saying.
I and Thou: Love of the Other
One of the side-benefits of stopping to reflect on the real meaning of our veterans sacrifices was a chance to re-review Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth". He makes the startling, but on contemplation, proundly true observation that when a soldier sacrifices his life for his brothers and for his country he does it because it reflects his deepest commitment to the welfare of the Other. They see the Other as Themselves, as a Thou. Bill Moyer's offers a great observation when he ads the story of an acquaintence who talks about taking the subway to work every morning and dying a little bit every day.
It's not just soldiers in war touching the deepest and most profound wellsprings of humanity. It's every one who ever acted, in small or large ways, for the betterment of someone else. When my neighbors go out of their way to host their annual Christmas party, at serious expense and an enormous amount of work, they do it to make the neighborhood a better place. When a policeman saves a suicide at risk of his own or those firemen went back into the Towers they did it for the best that's in us.
Each and every one of us can do the same. In ways that are large or small.
It's what makes us human, makes the world a better place and let's us touch that small spark of Divinity that we each carry around with us. A spark that needs nurturing to flame up but is there, potentially, in every one.
Perhaps the best memorial to what our veterans have done for us is to do for our friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and fellow citizens the best we can for them. Not just for ourselves. And to remember what they have done and are doing.
Remembrances and Celebrations
In Iraq, Colbert Does His Shtick for the Troops It was Sunday night in Baghdad, and President Obama was ordering Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of the American troops here, to shave Stephen Colbert’s head. (Not to give everything away, but the general is not as brutal with an electric razor as one would expect a bald man to be; Mr. Colbert’s hairdresser, on the other hand, has a merciless streak.) War, as things go, is a fairly unironic exercise. Sure, there are endless incongruities to be found and parodied in the speeches about war from politicians, generals and heads of state. But war itself — the dirty, dangerous business of soldiers on the ground — seems to be about as earnest a trade as you can find. Into this comes Mr. Colbert. He is taping four episodes of “The Colbert Report,” the Comedy Central show featuring his egotistical, fake-macho, nationalist blowhard alter ego, in Baghdad this week. It’s the first time in the history of the U.S.O. that a full-length nonnews show has been filmed, edited and broadcast from a combat zone. Mr. Colbert himself does not seem to be fazed by this seemingly tricky balancing act. Neither he nor his character knows what it’s like to be a soldier, he said in an interview here Saturday night. Only, his character thinks he knows. “Think of certain reporters who lose themselves in their own self-importance and accidentally give away troop movements and get kicked out of the country,” he said in a not particularly oblique reference to Geraldo Rivera. “The best way I can show gratitude is to do my show the best I can and make them laugh,” he said. “If I tried to tailor my material to people in the Army, there’d be two things. A, that’d be patronizing. And B, I’d be wrong.” The idea for taping the show here came about last summer, he said, at the suggestion of Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and a guest on “The Colbert Report.” But the election (in which Mr. Colbert was briefly a candidate) was the show’s focus for the following few months. Shortly after the inauguration, though, he began talking to a fellow board member at Donorschoose about the troops in Iraq. There was a general feeling among soldiers there, the board member said, that Americans had largely tuned the war out, that the economy had vacuumed up all the attention even though there are around 135,000 troops still here and still doing dangerous work. “There’s a thesis statement there, which is something for my character to hang on to,” he said. “My character thinks the war is over because he doesn’t hear about it anymore. He’s like a child. A ball rolls behind the couch and he thinks it’s gone forever.” Soldiers here are all too aware of America’s attention span about this war, several of them at the taping said. So the visit of Mr. Colbert, postmodern or not, was an unexpectedly high-caliber event among the recent string of retired baseball managers (Tommy Lasorda actually), wrestlers, cheerleaders and actors whose names require a little Googling. “I’m surprised that anybody comes here,” said 27-year-old Lt. Travis Klempan of the Navy, from Lafayette, Colo. “I mean we had the guy from the Allstate commercial. It’s like: that’s nice.”
Colbert in Iraq
The Meaning of Bloody Omaha The skies over Normandy are invariably filled with dark rain clouds. But on one day in late April the sky was cloudless and the English Channel tranquil. Youngsters built sand castles on Omaha Beach and dogs romped in the surf. It was a vastly different scene from the bloodshed and violence that occurred on this same beach 65 years ago. In an effort to understand what the GIs experienced on that fateful day of June 6, 1944, I climbed up a steep hill to the plain above the beach. Unlike the soldiers, I didn't carry an 80-pound pack on my back. And even though I observed German fortifications on my way, no one was firing at me. The cemetery for the fallen overlooks Omaha Beach. It was noon when I stood at the edge of the cemetery, looking out at row after row of the graves. The bells played "God Bless America." There was a burly fellow wearing steel- frame glasses standing in front of me, most likely an octogenarian. As the bells sounded our eyes met. I wanted to say something to him, but he removed his glasses and wiped the tears from his eyes. Words were unnecessary; he and I shared a silent understanding. There is simply no way to describe the sacrifice Americans made on the D-Day invasion to reclaim Europe from the grip of totalitarianism. Even the notoriously dispassionate Europeans realize that this is consecrated ground, a place where angels spread their wings to honor the deeds of youthful warriors. No St. Crispin speeches were necessary here, for this Band of Brothers knew what need not be stated: They were saving Europe from enslavement. We have grown complacent as a people in the last six and a half decades since the war in Europe reached the beginning of the end. But it is hard to remain unemotional at the hilltop cemetery that honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live in freedom. Though we owe these men a debt we can never repay, what we can do is honor them. Their bravery can still inspire if the story of D-Day is told with passion and honesty.
The Return of the Hot-Button Issues In the good old days of the last century, the years before the collapse of the economy and the World Trade Center towers, political discourse in the U.S. was, too often, rutted in issues that didn't affect the lives of most people. They were important moral and symbolic issues, to be sure. And they were difficult issues, although their subtleties were obscured by extremists, who tended to dominate the debate. Still, the people directly affected by the so-called social issues — abortion, gay marriage, racial preferences — pale in comparison with the tens of millions who have lost their jobs and fortunes in the past year and with the global, life-and-death impact of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consequently, social issues weren't decisive in the elections of 2006 and 2008, or in the early days of the Obama Administration. At the end of May, those issues returned with a vengeance. A doctor who specialized in the most controversial sorts of abortions was murdered in Kansas. President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, which restarted a tired debate about affirmative action. And while the blowhards have taken up their battle stations — the leadership of the Republican Party, especially, seems to have shifted from politics to infotainment — the terrain on these issues has shifted subtly in the past few years. (Indeed, gay marriage — once the hottest of hot buttons — seems to be easing toward public acceptance, as state after state approves it.) The point is, there are civilized compromises to be made — not always, but often — on even the toughest social issues. We are beset by wars and economic distress, and we no longer have the luxury of ceding these discussions to demagogues and fundraising interest groups. It's time to move on.
Comments
Well done!
Posted by: Richard Corbin | June 17, 2009 06:25 AM