CRB:
In the world of ancient Greece and Rome, collective reverence for the war dead helped explain why hoplites and legionaries fought so fiercely.
The great themes of classical literature are often those of battlefield commemoration. Pericles’ majestic Funeral Oration, the lyric poet Simonides’ epitaph for the fallen at Thermopylae (“Go tell the Spartans…”), Horace’s dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (“It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”), the hundreds of elegant casualty lists carefully carved on stone, and the glimpses of funerals for the fallen on red-figure vases—all these remind us that without national commemoration and collective gratitude for the sacrifice of their youth, consensual societies of the past could not offer successful resistance against their more regimented or tribal enemies.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) believes that proper commemoration still enhances civic responsibility. Accordingly, in Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery he offers three narratives to emphasize how and why America has learned this ancient lesson of honoring the war dead. He relates a regimental motto of the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard: “soldiers never die until they are forgotten.” Sacred Duty, focused for the most part on Arlington National Cemetery, is a multifaceted primer in why America so dutifully commemorates her soldiers, and how such formal gratitude contributes to our civic sense of self and to élan among our fighting forces. Or as Cotton, himself an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, puts it in more personal terms: “I…knew that, if I died, my battle buddies would bring me home and the Army would look after my family. That mutual pledge shaped our identity as soldiers and our willingness to fight—and, if necessary, to die—for our country.”
The core of his book is a history of The Old Guard, created in 1784 shortly after the American Revolution and now the Army’s most ancient unit, with a decorated record of service that includes the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. “[N]o other unit in our military,” writes Cotton, “has such constant reminders of its heritage, of the traditions and standards its soldiers are expected to uphold.” The Regiment’s three battalions oversee a vast array of the nation’s most solemn military rituals—well beyond their duties as the U.S. Army’s official honor guard, in which capacity they have escorted the president at ceremonies and in formal parades since 1948. The Old Guard solemnly handles the transfers of our soldiers killed overseas, whose bodies arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. It escorts the caskets of the fallen at public funerals and supervises the daily military burials at Arlington National Cemetery. And The Old Guard provides the sleepless sentinels who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “Their dedication to that mission transcends duty into love for three Unknown Soldiers who, in a phrase I heard often, ‘didn’t just give up their lives, they gave up their identities.’ more here
h/t Forcibly Deranged.
Off topic, except it matches the blog title.
I’ve read Eugen Sledge’s book, “With the Old Breed”, twice.
Last evening on Amazon I watched, “Task Force Faith – the story of the 31st regimental combat team”. Which is about the hell those men endured at the Chosin Reservoir Battle in Korea. Outnumbered 8:1. So damned cold it was an asset in one aspect, their many wounds quickly froze preventing many from quickly bleeding out. Accused of being cowards by a know nothing military chaplain, an accusation which grabbed national headlines and stuck for many years.
The Victor Davis Hanson – The Second World Wars – online course at Hillsdale College has been on my to-do list for a while.
https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/WorldWarII/home/world-war-ii-schedule .
https://lp.hillsdale.edu/second-world-wars-enroll/ .
The Old Breed and the Costs of War | Eugene Sledge (37 min)
[terror, filth and extreme fatigue on the front lines, with some humorous jabs at Janet Reno and Peter Jennings. A PC free talk]
Presented at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, May 1994.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCIJfM_CgWo .
Sobering. But Hanson usually is. Someone has to be.
Reminder of why ideas and politics translate into societal change and differences in values.
I was taught at an early age what those flags on graves meant every Decoration day and how “God, country, and Apple Pie” is more than just a motto.
I remember when babies/kids were more than aborted fetuses or sexual toys, there were only 2 genders, and Nationalism was not a label of defamation. When America’s borders stood for a real difference in the soil one walked on, and an American flag was among the most beautiful things you could see.
We weren’t perfect but we tried to correct our mistakes honestly and with love and consideration for community.
What happened? Viet Nam and the loss of faith in service and sacrifice, those not serving and the traitors (like John Kerry) he sold us out.
Thanks for that one Blink! good stuff.
Hansen is an excellent writer. I recommend, A War like no Other.
This article should be required reading in both High School and college!
@ Blink: VDH’s “The Second World Wars” is an amazing book. You won’t regret reading it. It is not a quick read.
I’ve read somewhere that Sledge’s writing “With the Old Breed…” was what finally helped him get over pretty Bad PTSD. Another book that should be required HS reading.
I don’t see the “freedom” our soldiers died for. Instead I see servitude to pay back the skyrocketed debt to banksters and arms manufacturers for the cost of wars that were meant to increase the power of the super elite. I see a southern border being overrun with invaders and criminals. I see a corrupt deep state that has been allowed to grow with impunity. I see super-wealthy big tech companies conspiring with the enemies of freedom. I see a mostly complicit national government in all of the above. Shall I go on? Conservatives need to abandon their myth about the military that has NOT been used for the defense of the nation. Yes, most of the people that go into the military are fine people with good intentions but they are being taken advantage of, being fooled by lies.
What happened is an apathetic populace allowed criminals to seat themselves in power across the entire globe.
Those Godless creeps proceeded to imprison Civilization to grab loot and “glory” for themselves.
A Purge is the only thing that will reverse course and restore Justice. Time will erase us who witnessed this, but will not erase the crime.
Billy Fuster …this is spot on. Until armed military is put on our border with orders to shoot the invaders it will remain this way.
Billy
The far left ATLANTIC had a good article 2 or 3 years ago. It said America has started 4 wars since WW2 and lost all 4. (Mao started Korea, not HST!) All 4 started by UNIPARTY PRESIDENTS (My label, Not theirs) who wanted to distract Americans from a bad economy. NOT WIN!
When I went to kill Mao’s boys for JFK, we all figured we were protecting Jacky’s relatives Rubber plantations. By the time my tour was done I figured it was all about the bad economy. Sometimes THE ATLANTIC gets it right! IMHO this article (EXCEPT FOR KOREA) WAS RIGHT ON!
I’ve always appreciated the people who fought our wars, they did what they saw as their duty to country and family at the time. In the best cases it was to earn / preserve freedom. In the worst cases, the wrong causes or just empire adventuring by our nation’s leaders.
I favor the view expressed on a plaque, I saw many years ago, at Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming (equally applicable to other wars between different peoples, including the WBTS in the 1860s) –
the – Heroic Men and Women Have Stood Where You Now Stand – plaque.
Which reads in part:
Bravery and courage were their hallmarks. Bravery and courage are not the possession of men alone for women served here also; both inside the stockade and in the Indian villages. They too shouldered the isolation, grief, loneliness, cold and hardships. Neither are bravery and courage the possession of white men alone for red men also fought here with bravery and courage.
Bravery and courage have no relationship to whether the cause they serve is “right” or “wrong!” Wherever, and by whom, bravery and courage are manifested, and in whatever cause they serve, these qualities merit respect and are worthy of honor for themselves alone.
We will do an unforgiveable disservice to those, both red and white, who here did their duty if their bravery and courage are not remembered and honored.
We will also have failed those who come after us if we do not protect and preserve this ground and provide, as best we can, a means of enabling posterity to KNOW, to APPRECIATE, and to FEEL the great events which took place here in the shadow of the Big Horns.
You can read the Charles Weaver Margolf’s IN PRAYER: VISION OF HOPE, and the rest of the story here:
https://www.fortphilkearny.com/fpk-detailed-history .
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t257/wormholegamma/WY%20-%20Fort%20PK/P1080235_zps611159e9.jpg .
As an aside. Watching “Task Force Faith – the story of the 31st regimental combat team”. One badly wounded survivor told of a German who had fought with German Wehrmacht in WW2, who was then a US soldier, who refused to leave his wounded officer behind though ordered to do so. Times change enemies and causes.