I love visiting cemeteries this time of the year. Last Spring mixed with Old Glories. Thornton Wilder states the debt we owe in his play Our Town: Over there are some Civil War veterans. Iron flags on their graves…New Hampshire boys…had a notion that the Union ought to be kept together, though they’d never seen more than fifty miles of it themselves. All they knew was the name, friends – the United States of America. The United States of America. And they went and died about it.
Late Spring and Old Glories
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
We love our Heroes.
Amen.
Looking at Christ as a Veteran of foreign war par excellence, the model of heroism and courage, one can better understand the self sacrifice from our war heroes.
Christ battled an enemy that dug deep into strategic positions on every mans beachhead. His heart.
Christ fought for US. The enemy, the axis of evil, is identified as original sin, venial sin and mortal sin. In every moment the enemy tries to take more ground and man can loose his position.
A soldier, after baptism, has eliminated one of the three assailants, who’s goal it is is the Soul.
Jesus our model, hiked into enemy territory for us. For forty days he subjected himself into the hands of the enemy, but didn’t surrender. He was showing us, the grunts, what is the enemies weaknesses. They tried to get him with all they had, but they failed. Fasting, prayer and alms giving are the necessities in our backpack.
Throughout the next three years He revealed to us how to expose the enemy and repell them from our sacred ground.
Forgiveness Mercy Love of Neighbor
– these are only a couple of our weapons.
The climatic battle and subsequent Victory day happened on a weekend. The Friday battle was bloody and agonizing. The outcome was complete Victory over Death, yet factions of the enemy continues to mount advances on millions of beachheads even to this day.
This Great and Noble warrior is at the core of every hero. The hero is in imitation of this Victorious warrior and it is in those moments that the warrior’s Father, the Creator of the universe, recognizes these traits and raises the heroes upon their last breath.
For us, the living, a time of unified remembrance is at hand. Remembrance and thanksgiving.
They inspire us to dig in, fight and take back ground, pushing the enemy into the abyss from whence it came.
Happy Memorial day weekend.
My favorite part of being in The Old Guard was placing flags at all the gravesites in Arlington National Cemetery. It was probably the only thing I liked about the Army, since me and the military are not simpatico.
It was probably the only thing I liked about the Army,
🙂
The Army is not to be liked, it is to be endured!
Language advisory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lQfoLNJXWQ
We used to have Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonys with a bugler at the church cememtery after the 0900 Mass. No more. I check with the church office manager for new burials. We have 30 vets’ remains buried. I place the flags on July 4, Veterans Day and Memorial Day weekend. Leave them on for a week each time hoping the mowers with their machines don’t chew them up.
Usually a second cousin out in MN will place flags on the graves of my dad, his dad and his uncle.
Wondering who will do it for my generation?
Steve, a friend told me that there is no longer a caisson unit at Ft Myer. I haven’t verified that news. I used to take my sons through the stables there. The soldiers were so nice to them. I enjoyed it too.
Steve, not everyone can serve in the Old Guard. It’s an elite unit. May be a cliche, but thank you for your service
“Bugles Across America,” a program designed to provide a live musician playing taps at every American veteran’s funeral,
https://buglesacrossamerica.org
Don, thanks for the laugh. I’m pretty sure I said that quite a bit!
Cam, thank you. Just being in The Old Guard was an honor; I was just very young, and had trouble just accepting some of the pure… stupidity of the Army. I did make it to E-4 before I got out, and they did offer me E-5 if I stayed in, but I was not having that! I can’t believe they’d get rid of the Caisson though; mainly because it’s used in Presidential funerals. That was almost thirty years ago for me though, there’s been a lot of changes. All MOSs are now available to be a Tomb Guard, when I started it was Infantry only; after about a year MPs were allowed to be Sentinels, so women could be Tomb Guards. I don’t think I would have made it through the training for that anyway. I struggled with the ROP training.