Text 14810, 90 rader
Skriven 2005-08-29 14:29:53 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 14807 av John Massey (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: When a soldier dies
===========================
John Massey -> All wrote:
 JM> This is worth a read.


 JM> T.R. Fahrenbach: When a soldier dies in battle, there is no tragedy
 JM> Web Posted: 08/28/2005 12:00 AM CDT

 JM> San Antonio Express-News

 JM> In 1969, my grandmother and a cousin died.
 JM> I remember saying to someone that there was no tragedy in either death. My
 JM> grandmother was 89, long past normal life expectancy, and her last years
 JM> were not good. In fact, she was kept alive on medications, which in
 JM> consultation with family and doctor, we stopped. Shortly after, she passed
 JM> peacefully away. She had lived a long and splendid life.
 JM> My cousin was young, a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy. He was
 JM> killed at a fire base in Vietnam. He was an only son, and this was a
bitter
 JM> blow to family.
 JM> Unfortunate, painful, but hardly tragic. He had taken the shilling, a
 JM> regular officer, and he was doing what men do when he died. He did what he
 JM> wanted, a short but also a splendid life.
 JM> I think we dwell too often, when soldiers die, upon the living rather than
 JM> the dead.
 JM> And in doing this, we dishonor our honored dead.
 JM> Every soldier has a mother. I had one, of course. She was not happy
 JM> when, at
 JM> age 18, I went to war. However, then every mother's son was going, in the
 JM> great fatherland patriotic war, sometimes called World War II.
 JM> There were some 300,000 Gold Star mothers before it ended. A Gold Star in
a
 JM> window signified a child killed in action, and it was both proudly and
 JM> sadly
 JM> displayed.
 JM> But that kind of war was different. Everybody was involved; cosmic
 JM> consequences were at stake. We have not fought that kind of war again.
 JM> Mothers react in different ways. My closest friend in school, again an
only
 JM> son, died in combat in the Ardennes. His mother never forgave me for
living
 JM> while her boy was killed. When I met with her after the war, she had
 JM> nothing
 JM> to say, and I did not call again.
 JM> Which made me wonder about my own mother, when I took the shilling and
 JM> voluntarily went to a new war. She didn't like it, nor did my
grandparents.
 JM> Which I understood. But it was my decision; I was of age, and men untie
the
 JM> apron strings. We do it when we marry and when we go to war.
 JM> Had I been killed, I would have expected my mother to grieve. She grieved
 JM> when one of her cats died. In fact, if no one grieved at my passing, my
 JM> life
 JM> would not have been worthwhile.
 JM> But if my mother had condemned my service and my dying, I would have felt
 JM> that she dishonored me. I was not a child, her little boy. I did what men
 JM> do, though women may weep. The way it's always been, and probably always
 JM> will be, world with or without end.
 JM> When men or women make honest choices, families should respect those
 JM> choices
 JM> and honor them, whether the girl I married or the peril I accepted, as due
 JM> course.
 JM> I was in a war with great popular support (we're right behind you) and one
 JM> with little of it. To the real soldier, it does not make all that much
 JM> difference. When you take the shilling, pledge to serve your country right
 JM> or wrong, your home becomes the service and war, any war, your profession.
 JM> If you argue this is wrong, I point out that we have never been free of
 JM> armies since before the flood. We have soldiers because the human race has
 JM> always had to have them. We are not a peaceful species, and some tribes
 JM> always permit the others no peace. So Thucydides wrote, and nothing's
 JM> changed since his day.
 JM> Spartan mothers, it is said, told sons to return with their shields or
upon
 JM> them. In other words, death before dishonor.
 JM> Our culture does not allow us to say such things today. But the ethos
still
 JM> lives. Which is why we honor the valiant dead.
 JM> I cannot speak for others, but I would hope my mother would have done so
 JM> had
 JM> I not returned.

 JM> Online at:
 JM>
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/trfehrenbach/stories/MYSA082805.3H.fehrenbach.1bdbb4d6.html


Excellent post, John.  So much so that I forwarded it to about 15 others among
family and friends.  Thanks.

--- Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 (Windows/20050716)
 * Origin:  (1:123/789.0)