You’d never have learned about this:
The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. “10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.
“A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.
“Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden … yet.
“Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier’s chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.
“Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.
Every Friday for four years.
“It is well that war is so terrible – otherwise we would grow too fond of it.”
Robert E. Lee, Statement at the Battle of Fredericksburg (13th December 1862)
That never made sense to me. Sherman’s “War is hell” did.
War can bring out the best, and most noble, aspectss of mankind. The courage, love, tenderness, and devotion to duty and to things beyond the indiviual that men in combat often show is what Gen. Lee was refering to. See: http://www.civilwarlife.org/LogoPage.htm
for one examle.
Or, just read this:
THE SAME CANTEEN
There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours,
fetters of friendship and ties of flowers,
And true lover’s knots, I ween:
the girl and the boy are bound by a kiss,
hut there’s never a bond ,old friend, like this
We have drank from the same canteen!
It was sometimes water and sometimes milk
And sometimes apple-jack “fine as silk,”
But whatever the tipple has been
We shared it together in bane or bliss
And I warm to you, friend, when I think of this
We drank from the same canteen!
The rich and great sit down to dine,
They quaff to each other in sparkling wine,
From glasses of crystal and green;
But I guess in their golden potations they miss
The warmth of regard to be found in this,
We drank from the same canteen!
We shared our blankets and tents together,
And have marched and fought in all kinds of weather,
And hungry and full we have been;
Had days of battle and days of rest
But this memory I cling to and love the best,
We drank from the same canteen!
For when wounded I lay on the center slope,
With my blood flowing fast and but little hope
Upon which my faint spirit could lean;
Oh! then I remember you crawled to my side,
And bleeding so fast it seemed both must have died,
WE DRANK FROM THE SAME CANTEEN!
Joe,
That has always been one of my favorite poems. I read it at both memorial Day, and Veteran’s day and it always rings true to those veterans who are listening.
Thank God the denizens of the Pentagon, who in the past I’ve said many bad things about, can still laud a fellow warrior and acknowledge the sacrifice of the common soldier. Now, if only those that hold the pursestrings of the warrior class could do the same…
God damn, why don’t we know this?! At least once a month something should be said to honor these men & women as the Pentagon honors them.
The media would make a circus of it, Kris, with endless prattling about something, or someone, other than the sacrifice made by the Veterans. We so often honor our war dead with flag at half staff, but seldom offer national recognition to the living amongst us.
God bless Michael Yon. Once upon time Mr. Yon went to the aid of a fallen Army officer in the midst of a firefight in an Iraqi ‘burb, putting himself at tremendous personal risk. With no fire support immediately available, Yon picked up the officer’s rifle to cover his retreat with the officer in tow. For his thanks a battalion XO, IIRC, came up and rebuked him saying “You ever pick up another weapon, I’ll have you out of country same day!” Ya do what ya gotta do…
Well, Mongo, what did you expect? Why do you think the old saying “No good deed ‘ere goes long unpunished” came into being in the first place.? Human nature never changes…
Mongo – I suppose you are right. Unfortunately.
I’m going to take this opportunity to point out that the Washington Post – yes, that WP, has consistently provided thoughtful, caring articles on a daily basis of our heroes as they are laid to rest in Arlington. Be they from Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, WWII or Ft Hood. MOH awardee or a Baltimore native who joined the Army at age 41. More than one or two paragraphs stuck together by a J-school apprentice.
It’s in the Metro section – a section that many reading from the web would not likely hit, but for those of us who still take our newspaper the old fashioned way it is the section I first turn to – daily.
w/r,
SJS
“We have all been there now.”
Somehow I think not.
Touch tribute, regardless…
I make it a habit of hitting Mr. Yon’s tip jar.
Good man, been outside of the wire a long time.
I first heard rumors of this happening a couple of years ago. Then last year, my mom (retiree and now civ svs) went to DC for a year long “internship” of sorts. She spent half of that tour in the Pentagon in the SDO. Every Friday I’d get a call from her because she had born witness to this event and needed an outlet for the multitude of emotions rolling through her. I wish that I would have been able to participate once.
I miss the days of Rome, where our warriors were revered and the actors were considered low-class.