Question: What is, what’s happening where we plan to go on vacation, Alex? Because we are cursed. Cursed, Alex, when it comes to vacations.
As promised, here’s the list of people getting autographed copies of Final Salute by Jim Sheeler.
1) Gunfighter, who wrote
In the course of my life, I have viewed Memorial Day through different lenses.
As A child, I thought of Memorial day as the beginning of the summer season. There was a holiday, and flags, a trip to someplace warm in my future, and the joyful knowledge that school would be out for the summer in a few weeks. The world was alive with possibilities.
As a younger man, who enlisted in the Marines in 1981 (at age 17), Memorial Day was a day that the “Old timers†would draw away from the us young-bloods. They would share stories, and private thoughts and exchange somber greetings with each other. You see, in those days, the “Old Timers†were the guys who had served, and lost friends, in Vietnam. I sort of understood it, then, but it wasn’t personal.
As a veteran who is settling into the reality that I now have fewer days left in front of me than I do behind me, I see memorial day through an entirely different lens.
Today, I see Memorial Day as a day to remember friends who served with me. I see Memorial Day as a day to honor those who served their country honorably, and gave their lives in the ultimate sacrifice.
I served in the armed forces at the end of the Cold War and through a couple of hot ones. Beirut, Lebanon; Grenada; Panama; The Persian Gulf War… I have friends who were killed in some of those places. I have friends who stayed in the service, who are now the “old timers†themselves. Many of these friends have served in Iraq or Afghanistan more than once.
I have coworkers who are Reservists who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their wounds, and suffering are important to me… they are personal.
On this Memorial Day, I will continue to honor the sacrifices of my friends and my younger comrades who are now taking my place in the line. Sure, I’ll still worry about them, and I’ll still have my own grave misgivings about the reasons for the current war, but this will not diminish the pride I feel at having been part of the superb forces that serve America.
2) Caroline, who wrote
My father, at 66 years of age, is currently working for USAID in northern Vietnam, he’s trying to clean up remenants of agent orange. A daunting task to say the LEAST. But this is actually a fairly relaxing post for him. Last year, he was in Kabul, Afghanistan for 4 months. He did about 4 “tours†of this sort trying to assist farmers with alternative livlihood methods – farming options OTHER than growing poppies. And war lords weren’t his biggest fan. Anyway, my point is, his life was at stake. Everyday. He wore flak jackets to work and literally had 12 “shooters†around him where ever he went. And this is where Memorial day comes into the picture for me. The men protecting him? The “shooters†that escorted him all over town and all over the country? They were kids – 21, 22, 23. And when my Dad spoke with them, they had such dedication to their jobs and their country. They were ready to die for my Dad. My Dad!? Who always loses his glasses, is late for everything and doesn’t know how to wash his own shirts? They would give their lives for my Dad? And some did while my father was there. On Monday (and many other days) I remember them and thank them for allowing my Dad to make it home for our Christmases, a graduation, seeing his third grandson born – just continuing his life with us. Bless them and I thank them from the bottem of my heart.
3) Bob, who wrote
To some military musicians and ceremonial guardsmen, every day is Memorial Day.
I’m a military musician in Washington, DC. Where I work, the main mission is rendering final honors to the dead at Arlington National Cemetery. Though performing is not my primary duty (I’m usually off in the corner where they keep the creative types), I am occasionally called on as an extra or substitute drummer for a funeral.
Even for a stand-in like me, it is all too easy to regard the job with a sense of routine. A military funeral is, after all, a ritual that has changed little over the centuries, and the troops who perform it are professionals whose principal job is to perform it as many as four times a day.
Services are virtually identical from one to the next. It is rare for members of the ceremonial unit even to know the name of the deceased. But even though the services may blur together in a performer’s memory -— indeed may seldom have any distinctive resonance as little as a day later -— the performers know, every time, that for the family and friends gathered to honor their loved one, it is a singular occasion of immeasurable significance, and it will be remembered.
I know what it’s like to get a “thank you†for -— to my thinking at the moment -— just doing my job. When a boss or supervisor says it, I often blow it off and keep on working. But when it comes from someone who is genuinely moved by the solemn spectacle of the military’s most fundamental honor, that is something else entirely. I know that for Memorial Days to come, they will recall the funeral as a fitting and proper tribute to someone who deserved nothing less.
and …
Andy, who entered over at eMail Our Military, wrote
Rarely do contests. Figured, I participate in this worthy project.
Semper Fi!
Andy Valadez
USMC 88 to 92
Thank you again to everyone who participated.
Remember:
1) Read it.
2) Write about it.
3) Pass it on.
If you haven’t heard from me lately, it’s because I’ve been working on the launch of Being Savvy: Tampa, one of the city blogs on The Savvy Source for Parents. Other cities (so far) are Atlanta, Austin, Charleston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Nashville, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
And little ol’ me.
They gave me the keys to my very own Tampa blog. I don’t know what they were thinking. I’m just trying to keep my hands at 10 and 2 and keep from crashing into anything. In any case, it should be a fun and interesting ride.
Come on over. Take a look … and get a load of all the fun stuff we get to do in Tampa.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my post about Final Salute. I’m notifying winners now, and I’ll post them soon.
Thanks!
I read about some tips for traveling this summer, including this:
Package shippers like FedEx Corp. or United Parcel Service Inc. or luggage shippers like Luggage Forward Inc. or Sports Express LLC may now be an attractive alternative. With FedEx, you can ship three bags — two 40-pounders and one 60-pound bag, from Dallas to Boston and back for about $250 if you use the three-business-day service, and the price might be a lot less if you have access to a corporate account with discounts at FedEx. Put the bags in shipping boxes or just use tags that shippers now have for luggage. Package shippers can track the bags, too — something airlines don’t do. On United, those same three bags would cost you $450 round trip if traveling alone.
So … when will the package shippers start putting “people boxes” on their planes? How bad could it be?
(Well, unless you’re Chuck Noland … )
What are you doing today?
I’ve written a guest post about Memorial Day for Mothers of Intentions at PunditMom. It will be posted Wednesday.
In the meantime, I’ll go read eMail Our Military, whose motto is, “Supporting Our Military, One eMail At A Time.”
I’m also planning to extend the deadline for the Final Salute giveaway to coincide with eMail Our Military, which will also be giving away an autographed copy of the book.
Stay tuned.
Update: The book giveaway is up at eMail Our Military. Go check it out!
Unless you want all the folks who speak British English to spit their coffee because, umm, fanny doesn’t mean buttocks to them. It means :::whisper::: female genitalia.
Ahem.
So imagine non-American-English speakers reading this headline on the front page of The Wall Street Journal the other day.
Modest Proposal: A Vermont Town Bucks Nakedness, Skinny-Dipping Spurs An Outbreak of Nudity; The Fanny-Pack Man
A man with a fanny-pack, no less.
Fanny issues might not be discussed much in, oh, The Economist, but they are discussed elsewhere.
But, hey. I bet one of the new bosses (you know, the ones from Australia?) might have an idea why using fanny in any context while trying to be serious might have the Brits laughing their arses off at the daft wanks, er, Yanks, who thought it was a good idea at the time.
Just sayin’.
I just finished reading Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Veterans Day special report on Nov. 11, 2005, in the Rocky Mountain News.
I can’t review it. Anything I say will be inadequate. Instead, I’ll borrow words from Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and author of Chasing Ghosts (another must-read book):
Jim Sheeler’s Final Salute should be required reading for all Americans and their elected leaders. It is not pro- or anti-war but instead a gripping account of combat’s price on the families of the fallen. Final Salute is also the inspirational and often heartbreaking story of the incredible, heroic efforts of a Marine officer to help ease the pain of these families. Jim Sheeler should be saluted for providing a heartfelt view inside the returns home from Iraq that too often pass unrecognized by the American public.
He’s right. Everyone should read this book. Everyone.
Final Salute is journalism at its finest. Sheeler writes about military families with honesty, honor and respect. He writes about things most ordinary Americans never read about in the headlines or on the front page. His words are gentle and subtle, yet the stories are powerful.
I can’t write a review, but I can get at least three other people to read this book. So here’s the deal.
I will give away three autographed copies of Final Salute ($25.95, hardcover). Here are the rules.
1) Leave a comment or send me an e-mail.
2) Give me your name and a working e-mail address.
3) Tell me what Memorial Day means to you.
If you win a copy, here’s what I want you to do.
1) Read the book.
2) Write about it. If you don’t have a blog, I’ll give you space for a guest post.
3) Give it to someone else to read. Or keep your copy but give another one as a gift to someone else.
You have until midnight, Friday, May 30, 2008, to enter.
Update: You have a chance at another book at eMail Our Military. I’ve extended my deadline to coincide with theirs.
…
Special thanks to Dave Hurley at Borders. I couldn’t have done this without you!
…
Sheeler is on tour. Stop by if you’re in any of these neighborhoods.
Seattle ~ May 15, 7 p.m., Third Place Books
San Francisco ~ May 16, 12:30 p.m., Stacey’s Bookstore
San Francisco ~ May 17, 7 p.m., Book Passage Corte Madera
Madison, Conn. ~ May 19, 7 p.m., R.J. Julia Booksellers
Washington, D.C. ~ May 20, 7:30 p.m., Borders – Tysons Corner
I just finished reading The Bookseller of Kabul by Ã…sne Seierstad. Anyone else?
Or maybe I don’t want to know. I just hope this one found its way to the other side of our screen. You know … the outside. Oh well. At least it wasn’t an alligator.
