Go in Peace Sgt. Myers

Excellent article. Thank you for sharing this, and Welcome Home.

Thanks for the reminder that while some here are whining about birth certificates and Michele's wardrobe, others are fighting, and dying, for our right to complain.

Jim, that was an amazing article. it almost brought a tear to this Jarhead's eye the way you described it.

I think the only thing more solemn and insipiring more reverance than watching the funeral detail unload the casket at Dover is saluting a rifle upside down behind a pair of boots with a dogtags hanging from it. A sight like that gets seared into your memory, and try as you might, you're never able to forget it. The wash of emotions - hatred, fear, guilt, grief, desperation, hopelessness...they all hit you in an instant, each one fighting for attention.

You realize that was your brother or your sister, and that at any moment of any day, it could be you getting saluted in the same manner. You're terrified, but at the same time you're glad that it's not you. And then you feel guilty for feeling that way.

We should know the cost of war. War is the last resort of diplomacy, and should be used as such. If it doesn't have a consequence (and many people today believe if they don't see it on TV, it's not real) then what else is there to prevent people considering war as the first step in diplomacy, and not the last resort as it should be ?

Thank you Jim.

Always worth writing about honor Jim. Your natural cadence in writing when your heart's in it is impressively technically deft.

I can see why you were sought out to write others letters for them.

Thanks for the reminder of how serious it is the games we play.

Jim,

Thank you.

As prior military I like yourself never understood why the government saw fit to hide the reality of war and worse to dishonor our brothers in arm by quietly dropping them off in Dover for their final trip home.Almost like hiding them.

I like you have been at Dovers AFB many times and as familiar as I am with the cost of doing our duty I still could not help but cry each time I saw another coffin being unloaded.

Now I have two nephews that carry the torch of freedom in Afganistan and hope I never have to see them or any others unloaded from one of those planes.

I know reality dictates otherwise but one can never lose hope.

A very moving tribute, Jim. It seems cowardly to send people to war but hide their homecoming when they have died. Yet, that's the time they nee to be acknowledged even more.

Thanks, Brother! :o)

Ji, thank you for this, and thank you so much for your service to our country. I deeply appreciate it!

Brothers raised from the soil and returned. We need no longer retire in secret. Thank you, Jim Dent. Many of us needed this change and you are so right to applaud it. God Damn those who would lurk in darkness.

Clipping this to the Warriors' Way...

As usual, beautifully written Jim and I am drawn to share this movie with others who appreciate the sacrifice of our men and women who have bravely stepped forward on our behalf.

http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/ It is an excellent movie void of the politics and full of genuine tribute for our veterans.

C/P'ing a poem that has been a favorite since the first time I ever read it. It is an inspiration to me when times are tough, and many lessons can be learned from it.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

For all those who have gone before us, in particular:

Lt. Colonel Dewitt Ted Rogers 1917-1997

Staff Seargent Ollie Rogers, who died at Omaha beach

Grandaddy, I miss you.

Thanks Jim

Our new president has saw fit to repeal the idiotic rules that forbade our public displays of grief and honor. To my mind, that's a good start to understanding war... and it's true cost.... the young who will be our future

Exactly. To show the coffins is to honor the sacrifice. And, we must see the sacrifice to understand the true price of war.

Great article, Jim. Clipped to Veterans and Friends.

I'm glad to see you here and can't think of a better place to use your voice, thank you.

Great piece Jim. The elder Bush did not want the toll of war on the Evening News. He knew that Afghanistan is the new "Vietnam". Few are aware of how the returnees were treated upon their return.

I "have" 9 names on "The Wall". Every time I have been to The Wall I can hardly keep it together.

Once you have been to a funeral at one of the National Cemetaries you will have the concept of what one of those sacred containers really represent.

Thanks for reminding everyone.

These are the building blocks on which our liberty and freedom is founded. Many of the youth of our nation have come home like this but without the recognition they deserve. They have given the full measure of a patriot so that we can enjoy that liberty that freedom. Their reception should be no less than that of a visiting head of state, In full view of the public so they will remember and remember and remember these fallen comrades who's ranks have swollen without the proper recognition or appreciation being given.

Jim, this is a beautiful piece and I'm so glad to see you posting again. We can never do enough to honor our fallen. Clipped to my column.

Just popping in after a couple weeks hiatus, and got all excited when I saw that you had written something. And then you made me cry, dammit. *smile*
Beautifully written, Jim. Thanks.

Nicely written, though there were no daily newspaper photos of casualties in WW2 either - we didn't see photos of 50,000 casualties at the Battle of the Bulge, for example. Viet Nam was the worst example of journalism wanting to be part of the story so that was the anomaly in reporting, not Bush 41 and Kuwait. He understood war as well as anyone but he also understood that political opponents (and cultural zealots) would try to make their deaths a political football - which is what Obama just did.

Jim Dent,

Thanks for posting.