Memorial Day, 2013

In an homage to those who died in the service of their nation, the  New York Times published an article and image that struck home.



The perfect uniform, laid out as if someone was within it, evokes the sense of perfect loss, perfect emptiness, that one feels toward the fallen Marine who will be put to rest in it. One cannot help but feel the loss, and sentimentality, as well as the rightness of honoring the man for whom the uniform is prepared.

Yet, it also raises a troubling notion. 

The soldier bent to his work, careful as a diamond cutter. He carried no weapon or rucksack, just a small plastic ruler, which he used to align a name plate, just so, atop the breast pocket of an Army dress blue jacket, size 39R.

“Blanchard,” the plate read.

And so Staff Sgt. Miguel Deynes labored meticulously, almost lovingly, over every crease and fold, every ribbon and badge, of the dress uniform that would clothe Captain Blanchard in his final resting place.

“It’s more than an honor,” Sergeant Deynes said. “It’s a blessing to dress that soldier for the last time.”

What if Capt. Aaron R. Blanchard lived?  Is it not still a blessing to care for those who survive?

This isn’t to suggest that the war dead haven’t earned the devotion of a nation or its military. On this Memorial Day, 2013, we honor those who lost their lives to war in the service of our country, and we do so without regard to our politics or thoughts about whether any young American should be put in harm’s way. No one can question the propriety of Sgt. Deynes doing everything he can to assure that Capt. Blanchard, that every soldier lost to war, is treated with the utmost respect.

And yet we can also ponder why our military, our government, doesn’t deem it worthwhile to show the same honor, the same precision, to those who live. The wounded. The walking wounded, who suffer traumatic brain injury that no one seems to notice or take seriously enough, but who end up leaving military service to find themselves in a world that has no use for them, can’t accommodate them. They have medals and ribbons, but no jobs or adequate care.

As we think about those who gave their lives, do we not have room in our minds to think about those who stood next to them but didn’t die?  They are all worthy of our respect and honor. More importantly, they are all worthy of our meticulous care. 
Gently, he laid the pieces onto a padded table. Black socks protruded from the pants and white gloves from the sleeves. The funeral would be a closed coffin, but it all still had to look right.

“They are not going to see it,” he said. “I do it for myself.”

Sgt. Deynes did it because it was the right thing to do. The rest of us can see our returning soldiers, and yet can’t be bothered doing the right thing for them as they take off their uniform and blend in with the rest of us, to be treated as shabbily as everyone else for not having died for their country.






21 thoughts on “Memorial Day, 2013

  1. Dr. Sigmund Droid

    Such a moving photo indeed, which captures the essence of Memorial Day perfectly for me. So well, in fact, I re-posted it on The Facebook™ with the following comment:

    “Memorial Day is a day to honor . . . A day to reflect . . . A day to understand . . . Millions of men and women have died for the rights and freedom of those who still live . . . And yet these are rights and freedom that, far too often, the living don’t appreciate or cherish . . . Our dead soldiers left their families early and forever, in defense of our Constitution . . . But they died not for mere inked words on decaying parchment; no, they died so that we can live with rights and freedom . . . We dishonor our dead warriors when we forget what a gift it is to have these rights and freedom . . . Rights and freedom that most who have ever lived on this planet never experienced . . . For it is in these forgetful moments that our rights and freedom begin to slip away . . . And there may come a day – a day I pray never comes – that no number of dead soldiers can bring our rights and freedom back home to us . . .”
    .

  2. Dr. Sigmund Droid

    .
    I idealize myself as a cross between the Scarecrow and the Tinman, so yeah, someone new!!??!! . . .

  3. SHG

    It’s not just the numbers, but the marketing pitch: “…for the rights and freedom of those who still live.” 

  4. Mark W. Bennett

    It’s both. Even if you were to include the many wars not fought “for the rights and freedom of those who still live,” 1.3 million is not “millions.”

  5. Bill P

    “those who lost their lives to war in the service of our country …”

    And who would they be, Scott? Fill us in.

  6. Biil P.

    Well Scott, dude, I don’t think there really are any. The country hasn’t been attacked in 72 years, right? And it’s questonable whether that should count since the people in charge just got what they wanted. (They wanted war.) So who are these people? They saved the world from Saddam Hussein? Is that it?

  7. SHG

    No, Bill. Governments wage questionable war for dubious reasons. The men and women who die in those wars do so in the service of their country. To impute the politics of the government to the individual who died in its service would be a foolish, and erroneous, mistake.

  8. ExCop-LawStudent

    I guess creating bombs out of airliners and flying them into targets doesn’t count as “attacks” on this country.

    Since it isn’t my blog, I won’t say what I really think about Bill’s comment.

  9. SHG

    Just as I told Bill not to go there, you don’t go there either. This isn’t political when it comes to the men and women who died, and I won’t allow it to become political.

  10. Bill P.

    “in the service of their country …”

    Scott, don’t publish this if you don’t want to, of course. It’s your legal blog. But I want to tell you the matter is thoroughly political. It was not in the service of their country. It was in the service of the bankster clique & the warlords.

  11. SHG

    There are other blogs and websites where people wearing tin foil hats see things as you do. Not here. Perhaps you would feel more at home elsewhere.

Comments are closed.