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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Tuesday Voice: Rememorial Day

Ortega on the left and me on the right;
we flank a soldier whose name I can't spell
By Ed Rogers

I come from a military family. We have had a member in every war this Nation has fought. Not bragging, just stating a fact that explains why as a child Memorial Day was special to us. I grew up on bases in Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, France, and California. We were stationed in some of those states more than once.
    No matter where the duty station was, come Memorial Day, my father would put on his dress uniform and he and his company would join the parade of soldiers who marched down streets in a town filled with strangers. Although these towns were not our homes and most of the time their people complained about the military, on that day they stood on the sidewalks waving flags and cheering for the home team.
    As my father passed I would wave as hard as I could and scream, “Daddy, daddy!” He never looked my way. As a true soldier he held his eyes to the front, but I could see the smile come to his face. He went through two wars and died in 1959. We buried him at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. He was 43 years old.


There is another group of people who never march in parades, never hear the cheering crowd, and never see their children hollering their name. Yet these men and women are due the respect and honor of Memorial Days as much as any soldier. They are the reporters who rush to the sound of the cannon armed with nothing but a notepad and a camera. These are the men and women who, while bullets fly and soldiers die, lay their lives on the line to get the picture, to record the last words young soldiers want their mother to hear. The soldiers fight and die but their story is kept alive by these brave and willing men and women.
    Unlike my father, who is buried with his comrades in hallowed ground, with their country’s flag flying over their graves, the reporters are accorded no such honor. They get no taps, no Honor Guard, no 21-gun salute, no flag over their coffin to be carried home. They were there but nobody cares. There’s no grateful Nation for them, only a byline in an old newspaper.
    The number of these unarmed men and women, who are not asked or forced to risk their lives, is unknown. They come from many countries and speak languages most of us have never heard. But they are brothers and sisters with the reporters here; they too have chosen to face death for the honor of telling a story. How many of us can picture ourselves running toward a firefight armed with only a camera? I can’t see myself doing it. It takes a special kind of person to do that.


Robert L. Howard,
"the most decorated soldier in Vietnam"
Yesterday I saluted those unsung heroes, those brave few who willingly laid down their lives for us. They are the ones who tell us what is happening around the world, yet only a small few of them have a name. The others work, love, and die unknown, and upon their death few remember what they gave to the world.
    I said yesterday to all our men and women in uniform that it was their day and we were proud of their service. And I thanked them, and those who run along beside them.
    I thank them still today.
_______________
Copyright © 2013 by Ed Rogers

Please comment

27 comments:

  1. Here we see a group of civilians no one thinks about when we celebrate Memorial day. Thank you for bringing this store to life.

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  2. Ed, a fantastic piece of writing, as is your usual. You have a long military background in your family, as do I - the difference being you continued your lineage by going to Vietnam and I ended mine by not going. So while I well understand the importance of thanking those who served, I have to wonder if the parades, and similar pomp and circumstance, are a big part of what keeps our gullible public in favor of launching wars instead of exhausting every other possible alternative.

    Remembering those I knew who were killed, or had their lives ruined, by going to fight in 'Nam, and those who suffered the same fate from going to document the fighting in 'Nam, I wonder if the most overlooked and under-appreciated heroes are those who protested loudly and started the momentum that got our troops out of Southeast Asia. Your writing pays wonderful tribute to two sides of the war equation; do you have any thoughts on whether anti-war protesters deserve equal praise and remembrance?

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    1. Motomynd, wonderful question, "Whether anti-war protesters deserve equal praise and remembrance?" I think they certainly do when they correctly perceive that the particular war they're protesting is unwise; anything civil they do to expose the mistake would seem to deserve to be honored and appreciated, especially perhaps by those who might otherwise have needlessly served (and died), or have had a parent or a child or a sibling (or a neighbor!) serve (and die).

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  3. People seem to forget, there were a very large number of Vets protesting that war, also. Kerry for one. The protest of those who had served, the ones who had been there, and spoke with knowledge, these men and women they could not ignore. They could not say it was just a bunch of hippies. If anything turns a war around it is when those with the battle scars turn against it.
    Wars are not fought because of what we believe. Most soldiers just want to do their time and get the hell out. They fight because if they didn't they would die. God and Country had nothing to do with it.
    Korea was as bad if not worse than Nam. It is the forgotten war, as they say. The line went back and forth so many times they were using the same foxholes as the North Koreans. My father said he would go through 5 WWII before he would go through another Korea.
    To say we should honor their suffering, has nothing to do with the next war. All but, Korea and from the North's point of view it also may have been about money.
    These last two wars are going to leave us with broken souls. Every soldier knows there is a bullet with his name on it and the more time he is in combat the more it is likely that bullet will find him. Going back tour after tour, each time knowing that bullet is closer---that will mess with your head.
    If you want to stop wars you have to take the profit away. Make it cost the ones who are making money from wars suffer also. Let them feel the pain in their heart(at the bank.) Make those who benefit today pay for the next war out of their pockets. Pass a law so they cannot profit from anything after the war and they will end the wars.
    Never confuse a war with the soldier that fights in it. A war may be dishonorable, but those who serve are not. And yes it does not hurt that once a year we remember our fathers and grandfather who wore the uniform.

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  4. Yes, people apparently did forget the across-the-board protests against the Vietnam War, as they seem to quickly forget the toll of all military conflict. WWI, "the war to end all wars," resulted in more than 16-million dead and 20-million injured. Lesson not learned and all wars obviously not ended, WWII started two decades later, and killed more than 60-million people. Despite that, the "forgotten" Korean War erupted barely five years later and killed another million or more. And we have had the Vietnam War and how many others since then?

    If my family had stayed in Upstate New York, I probably would have aspired to West Point. Growing up an hour from Virginia Military Institute, however, I planned to go there. That plan was greatly dissuaded by the Vietnam news coverage on TV while I was in high school, and was squelched by the advice of an older friend who served in the Marines and fought at the infamous "Chosin Reservoir" in Korea. His advice about Vietnam, loosely quoted, went something like this: "why the hell would you go through that unless you had no other choice?" In five years I transformed from being committed to a military career, to forming a pact with my best friend that we would both flee to Canada if either of us was drafted.

    As great as it may be to remember those who wore the uniform, it is impossible to take profit out of the equation. So is organizing massive social resistance aimed at convincing people to refuse to wear the uniform possibly the only way to bring warfare to an end?

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  5. There is one other way. Elect only war Vets under 30. Old men, even vets, are more than happy to sent the young off to fight. I don't believe the young vet would pull that trigger as fast. Could be wrong---that would not be a surprise. (Smile) They called it the "Frozen Chosin"

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  6. Your comment reminds me of when the Vatican came out against nuclear war. Not against war with traditional weaponry, which would not reach them - but only against nuclear weapons, which might reach them.

    Yes, the "Frozen Chosin" - I can't vouch for the veracity of his account, but my friend said that when their withering gunfire would temporarily drive back an onslaught by the Chinese, the U.S. troops would stack the bodies of the dead Chinese so the next wave of attackers would have to climb over them. With the temperatures well below zero during much of the battle, the bodies formed a grotesque, frozen boundary that he said looked like mannequins thrown into a landfill.

    History does recount that at times the fighting was so close and so intense that U.S. pilots had to drop napalm that not only hit the Chinese troops, but Americans as well. Stories like this, and news reports from Vietnam - which obviously contrasted dramatically with the glorified imagery of war as portrayed in the movies of my early years - figured heavily in my decision to turn away from my planned career in the military, and work toward anything anything but a career in the military.

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  7. I lived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas before I jointed up. One friend had a hearing problem so he was out. The other hid out below Mexico City. I never had a problem with people who took off---a course I was out of the Army by then and my outlook on drugs and life had changed. I think I sent you the first page of my book. The character James Hamilton is a hodgepodge of that friend in Mexico and a couple others. A guy by the name of Jimmy and I drove three fellows to BC one night. There was some sort of underground railroad that moved these people around. One of them was from Kansas City and the other one was from Oklahoma. They had never met before that night. Jimmy had been seeing some girl in Seattle, she's the one that asked him to take them. He asked me, and what the hell, I wasn't doing anything that night.

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  8. Another colorful story, thank you.

    My thoughts on the need for social defiance to keep the U.S. out of unnecessary warfare stem from two questions: 1) what was the last war this country fought that it really needed to fight; 2) what was the last war this country fought that was led by clear planning by military experts who earned their leadership roles by merit rather than political connection?

    I'm not a military expert but I can make a case that every war this country has been involved in has been unnecessary, with the possible exception of the American Revolution. As for a war that was led by actual military experts, rather than someone with powerful political connections, I can make a case that we are still waiting - with the possible exception of George Washington's accomplished leadership in the American Revolution.

    Did the U.S. really accomplish anything in WWI? Some military buffs and historians will say yes, but if so, why did it have to be done all over again two decades later? As for WWII, U.S. response may have been necessary after Pearl Harbor, but does anyone really believe the U.S. war effort was well planned or intelligently implemented? Korea and Vietnam: Your father served in one, and you served in the other - what do you think about U.S. participation there? The jury is still out on the current "war on terror" but it seems doubtful that history will judge the U.S. kindly.

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  9. The Officer's Core, pushes for or at least hopes for wars, this is the time for promotions. Every SOB with a bar on his shoulder wanted a piece of the action in Nam. Vietnam was made for them. As was these last two wars. They all were long and confined. There were high ranking Officers that even demanded they be given a Green Beret. Most of these 'officers' had never been in the field, but they became Company Commanding Officers, and even Battalion Commanders. In country, a lot of these gentlemen died from friendly fire.
    Don't run the flag up to quick on the American Revolution. The ones that stood the most to benefit were the rich land owners in Va. Can you count how many of the founding fathers came from there? As for Washington he had a lot of fools commanding his troops also. I have four lines of my family that trace back to the American Revolution. They all came out of the hills of what is now Carter county Tn. They poured out of the mountains and kicked the hell out of Cornwallis, then most of them went home. They didn't want war they just wanted to be left alone. Look up Robert Carter of Va. He was the richest man in the colonies at the time of the war. His brother and my kin came out of Carter County so I'm not throwing rocks at people I don't know. The British had treaties with the Indians that stopped the white man from moving in land, after the war those treaties ended. Anyway, "Make Love---Not War"

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  11. So are you saying that no war the U.S. has been involved in, not even the American Revolution itself, was fought out of military necessity, but that the real motivation was a combination of political and financial factors?

    Sorry about the previous deletion; I too edit best after I push send...

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  12. I can't think of one which greed was not the factor. Did you know Vietnam sets on an oil field. The Japanese knew about the oil back in the 30s and were trying to get to it. The elected president of Brazil was over thrown by the CIA and ITT, because the president was going to Nationalize the phone company and a Military dictator was put in his place. All paid for by ITT. What's the saying: "Money is the root of all evil---and wars."

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  13. So why do we devote Memorial Day to recognizing and glamorizing wars instead of using it as a day to remind people of the real reasons we get into them, and the pointlessness of them? On the one hand, those who have served in war, or covered them, don't want to think of what they went through as being duped into a charade. On the other hand, if sharing their experiences could dissuade others from suffering the same fate, that would at least be something positive coming from a negative experience.

    What went on with Brazil, the CIA and ITT is not unlike what happened with the railroad barons and the "banana wars" in Central America from the late 1800s through the 1930s - and what goes on today in Rwanda, Congo and similar places thanks to corporate greed.

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  14. The answer to your question is--there is no answer. We are so in love with the word freedom, the American people will follow it right over a cliff. They don't seem to understand there is no freedom only control by consent.

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  15. Talk about quotes worth saving! May I slightly doctor it and archive it?

    "The American people are so in love with the word freedom, they will follow it right over a cliff. They don't seem to understand there is no freedom, only control by consent." Ed Rogers, from his veranda in Costa Rica - May 29, 2013

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  16. Moto: you give me far to much credit. It sounds much better the way you wrote it, by the way. I only put into words the ending to the wonderful dialog we had, it needed a stopping point. Did you see the quote I left you on the "crash and die" story you wrote?

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    1. Ed, apparently the "crash and die" story is NOT the "Third Monday Random" story (May 20) about the fork seal—at any rate, I took the time to go back and look at its comments but couldn't find anything that seemed to connect up with what you say here. Help, please!

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  17. Yes, even this great dialog needs a stopping point, but I reach it still confused by a question of logic. Why do people such as yourself, who - according to your comments - certainly seem to not be enamored of military actions and conquest, feel the need to honor such with parades and other pomp and circumstance? To me that falls in the same realm as adults foisting the myth of Santa Claus on their own children, while still remembering their resentment when they found out their parents lied to them about ol' Saint Nick. And in the same genre with people who go to church, at least on special occasions like Christmas Eve and Easter, even though they claim not to believe in god and don't go to church the rest of the year. To me, people need to make a clean and complete break from mythology, so the myth can no longer do the same damage to future generations as it did to the past.

    I will go back and look for your "crash and die" quote. When I get away for a few days on a bike I gladly leave the internet behind, and I tend to pick back up where I am, rather than where I left. That leaves gaps in the communication process, and I never take time to go back and look unless someone reminds me. Thank you for the reminder...

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    1. Moto, I believe our missing piece is how we view war and how we view the men and women who must fight the wars. To me they are not the same, while to you they are. I understand were you are coming from: "What if there was a war and nobody came?" That question was asked a lot back in the day. I refer you back to the word, "Freedom". I have no problem with Memorial Day. I do have a problem with the people waving their flags and cheering as the troops go off to war, and then forget about them when they come home. This takes place in small towns all over America. I have never marched in these parades nor would I ever do it. But it is for the soldiers not the military and I guess there is a bond I have with them. Not unlike a climber or runner or a motorcyclist; when you speak to those you share a bond with, sometimes words are not needed and those are the close times.

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    2. Kono, maybe we can find a way to take this act on the war and sell tickets? (smile)

      It isn't that I view war and the men and women who fight it as the same, but I think society in general views the mythology of both as the same. The general public, led by its politicians, says "let's go fight a war," and they just assume all will be well. They don't even care about the men and women they send to actually fight the war, they just hope they will be well. People seem to think it all happens by some sort of magic, and they either don't realize soldiers and civilians are being killed on both sides, or they don't care.

      My concern is that when we have parades and ceremonies to honor veterans, we perpetuate the myth of war as a noble endeavor where everyone comes out just fine. And that makes it easier to sell the next war to the people watching the parade - if not to the people in the parade.

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    3. Take this act on the road, obviously...not on the war...too much war on the brain.

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  18. Where you see harm, I see enjoyment. Most kids, I was not one, although maybe disappointed by there being no Santa Claus still run to the tree each Christmas morning. And so do their children. Religion aside, the sound of kids on Christmas morning is beautiful--Santa Claus or not. If you take imagination out of the world it would be very boring.
    The imagination of children for instants is boundless. And those like me who love to write fiction what would we do. You can't disavowal one person or group of people their right to imagine, without doing so with everybody and everything. This does not mean you or I have to buy into anyone's imagination, but you can no more stop it than you can stop someone from breathing---without killing.

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  19. Yes, imagination is wonderful and I too see great things in it. But I don't understand why it has to be based in a lie. I see great harm in dishonesty - no matter if it is parents lying to children about Santa, politicians lying to voters about civilian or military matters, or radical clerics telling their followers that Islam teaches they must kill infidels. It is the little lies told to children that sets them up to swallow bigger lies later in life.

    For what it is worth, the Santa lie has repercussions beyond what most people realize, as do most lies: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/plato-pop/201212/say-goodbye-the-santa-claus-lie, and from a quite different perspective, http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/SantaMyth.htm

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  20. Psycho Heads are not my cup of tea---talk about lying to you...They spend most of their life trying to understand why they are screwed up and then they pass their bubble along to the world as if they are Moses.
    There maybe some kids that are messed up and they blame their parents for lying to them about Santa. Those kids had or have more problems than that and would have these problems with or without Santa. 24 man team goes into combat. It is three days of hell and afterward one of the men gets a free trip to the Section 8 ward. He neither saw nor did anything the others didn't do. If one kid out of ten can't handle being told there is no Santa, you should ask how come the other 9 could? For some reason, Moto I can't see you laying on a couch, not that we both may not need too. (Smiley)

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  21. The good thing about being lied to about Santa is you learn early in life not to trust anyone over age three. Nope, not a couch guy. There is a reason they make beds.

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  22. I think I knew about Santa long before I ever said I did. That whole thing is more like pretend than a lie and what kid does not pretend most of his life, some of us long after childhood. Be careful on that bike this week-end, bad things normally come in 3s. If you believe that sort of a thing...Sometime I'll tell you about this VooDoo woman that lived, in all places,Washington State.

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