Photo courtesy: Remember.gov
Don't get me wrong. I'm a proud veteran. Among other missions, I served proudly in the U.S. Navy (Naval Air) during the first Gulf War. My friends smile endearingly when I tell them that I do, in fact, still get a little choked up EVERY TIME I hear the Star Spangled Banner. (No, really! That's a no-shitter. Ask me sometime of my story about the last day of my SERE school training and I'll tell you the exact moment that this involuntary reaction started for me.)
I'm a proud U.S. military veteran, I love my country, I've fought in support of the freedoms she represents, I will do so again if called, and understand that dying is a possibility in the act of performing my duty... But, just for the record, I take issue with the idea of charitably "giving" my life for her.
Rather, what I can say I and my vet-colleagues will do / have done, is to do our duty. And to do it with a commitment to the underlying values and principles that our duty-bound responsibility supports. But to "give" our life? I can't help but feel that that's somehow trivializing the job description.
While part of the military code of conduct does state, "I am prepared to give my life in their defense...", the wider context is a military professional who "...will never surrender of my own free will...while (I) still have the means to resist."
In fact, fighting and resisting is an obligation to be pursued until the point of futility.
So, the distinction I'd like to ask during this time of remembrance is that we also be mindful of a difference in giving as in a charitable act, versus giving as in the form of willful commitment to the performance of duty.
Don't Think of Me As Unappreciative
"They gave their lives...", I know we say that a lot about our military veterans. Not a week goes by that we don't hear a sound bite on the evening news about another one of our courageous vets "giving" her/his life for you and me while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. But, don't think of me as unappreciative for making this grammatical distinction.I understand the implied meaning behind it; the thoughtfulness of whomever is quoted using the term. I understand their empathy about the tragedy of it and the sacrifices associated with it. I also understand that many vets themselves have come around to using the phrase, as well. So, I accept the term in the spirit in which it's given: remembrance, honor, respect.
But, I guess every now and then--especially at times like this year's Memorial Day--I think about some of the friends I've lost in service of our country and the freedoms she represents. I especially think about one of my best friends Pat Ardaiz, who, after more than seventeen years, still graces our bookshelf with a picture showing him sporting his Navy "Dress Whites", Lieutenant's bars and gold wings. I think about how he, my friend Dennis Pendergist and I will never again be the complete "Three Musketeers" ever since Pat's E-2C Hawkeye crashed somewhere in the Ionian Sea on March 25, 1993.
We Do Our Duty
If Pat were here, I think he'd agree: he didn't "give" his life (in the charitable sense). The fact is, he died. He lost his life while honorably, courageously and dedicatedly performing his duty in support of a mission for freedom. That's what we do. We do our duty. If that results in the loss of our life, it's accepted as a stark reality of that commitment.But, just for the record, we don't charitably give our life. In fact, we have an obligation to resist and live. We do our duty. We do it for our country, for freedom and our way of life.
"...All real heroes are not story book combat fighters either. Every man in the army plays a vital part. Every little job is essential. Don't ever let down, thinking your role is unimportant. Every man has a job to do. Every man is a link in the great chain. What if every truck driver decided that he didn't like the whine of the shells overhead, turned yellow and jumped headlong into the ditch? He could say to himself, "They won't miss me -- just one in thousands." What if every man said that? Where in hell would we be now? No, thank God, Americans don't say that! Every man does his job; every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important to the vast scheme of things. The Ordnance men are needed to supply the guns, the Quartermaster to bring up the food and clothes to us -- for where we're going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man in the mess hall, even the one who heats the water to keep us from getting the GI shits has a job to do. Even the chaplain is important, for if we get killed and if he is not there to bury us we'd all go to hell..."
~General George S. Patton, Jr.
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