Duty, Honor, Sacrifice

Those professions where death is a part of the job have developed complex rituals for honoring those who have made the sacrifice. The military and the fire department are two of those that I had the pleasure of serving in. You show your respect to the departed by performing the ritual as perfectly as possible.

If you want to see a hundred manly men break out into tears, attend one of those services. For me, it is the fire department last call. Having spent a combined 30 years in the uniforms of the military and the fire department, I attended perhaps a dozen line of duty funerals. The ceremony goes like this:

The deceased firefighter’s truck is taken out of service. His crew spends an entire day emptying the hose bed, cleaning the truck, and draping the insignia and emergency lights with black bunting. His gear is placed in the front passenger seat. When the funeral is over, the casket is loaded into the hose bed of the truck for the ride to the graveside.

A radio and speaker are setup at the graveside. Dispatch calls the missing (dead) firefighter over the radio:

• <Tones sound for station 14>
• Dispatch to firefighter 143.
• Dispatch to firefighter 143.
• Dispatch to firefighter 143.
• “No answer from firefighter 143. Let the record show that 143, firefighter John Smith answered his final call at 1410 on this date. For over ten years, he provided dedicated service to the people of this city. Rest easy brother, we have it from here.”

Then a bagpiper located behind the crowd begins playing “Amazing Grace” as he walks into the distance, the music fading with him. A bugler follows that with Taps. At this point, there is not a dry eye in the place.

I spend my memorial day remembering those who gave their lives in the service of others. I was honored to serve and work besides some of the greatest people that I have ever met, with more than I care to remember having given their lives in the service of the people of this nation.

No greater love hath man, that he who would give his life so that another might live.

It’s well known that volunteer fire departments have been dwindling for years due to a dramatic drop in people willing to volunteer their time.

This article lays out the 90 percent drop in volunteers in Pennsylvania since the 1970s. People just don’t have the sense of community that they once had.

Why is the US sending the money of its taxpayers to defend Ukraine, when the men of Ukraine won’t even defend their own country and are dodging the draft? If they won’t do it, why should we care?

This is filed under duty, honor, country because the men of Ukraine don’t have any of those qualities.

I can see this happening where I live!#GodBlessAmerica 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/Ti84dDZRLh

— Thomas O'Connor '62 baby, #GodBlessAmerica 🇺🇲 (@TheyCallMeTomO1) May 23, 2023

No matter what the press and the Democrats want you to believe, you are not alone. They just want you to think that you are.

Memorial Day is not just a day to remember those military members who were lost in combat. There are many members of our military who are lost in peacetime, and their sacrifice is not diminished by the fact that we are not involved in hostilities. This Memorial Day, I choose to honor a man who was lost in a peacetime training accident when a rogue wave struck the ship that I was serving on, late one night in 1989 off the coast of Florida.

Three men went overboard when a wave struck the lowered aircraft elevator at 0115 in the morning. They were all wearing float coats. One was quickly found by his survival strobe. The second was found when a smoke float being dropped from a helicopter to mark the position of the first man fell on top of him. The third was never found, despite the fact that we searched for him for 24 hours. His body was never recovered. Airman Craig Harris gave his life that dark night in October. I honor his sacrifice, for the life he gave in support of this nation.

There are so many times that I have heard people, including myself, say that we are getting too old for the conflicts that are to come. It’s easy to think that the trials that we all see as inevitable are for young men, and let’s face it, many of us cannot consider ourselves to be young any longer. So let’s take comfort in the story of Samuel Whittemore.

Samuel was not a young man when he enlisted in the Third Massachusetts Regiment and fought the French in Canada. He was 49 years old when he killed a French officer and took his sword as a war trophy.

Mr. Whittemore wasn’t done. He fought again against Chief Pontiac in the Great Lakes region at 67 years old as he led troops against the French and Indians. During that conflict, he took a pair of dueling pistols as war trophies.

For the next decade or so, he became a respected leader in the civic arena. He lobbied against the government, speaking out and being a general pain in the ass. He protested the government’s actions, complaining about this and that, went to meetings of government, and represented his town as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. That was how it came to be that, in 1772, Whittemore was one of the three contributors to Cambridge, Massachusetts’ statement in objection to the Tea Act:

If we cease to assert Our rights we shall dwindle into supineness and the chains of slavery shall be fast rivetted upon us 

Then came the day when Samuel Whittemore’s family found him in his farm’s field, lying in a pool of blood, and even the town’s doctor didn’t believe that he would survive. British soldiers had left Samuel Whittemore in a pool of blood alongside a stone wall in Menotomy, Mass. after shooting the old farmer in the face, then bayoneted him at least six times and clubbed him, apparently, to death as they retreated from the skirmish at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Samuel was 78 years old.

Located near him were the bodies of three British soldiers: one shot by a musket, another by a dueling pistol, and a third run through with an ornate French sword.

Samuel survived that day, against all odds, and lived to the ripe old age of 96. He is currently buried in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts would not honor his heroism for another 230 years, when in 2005, Captain Samuel Whittemore was made the official state hero of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This is the reason why we stand for the National Anthem, to honor men such as this.

Years ago, a coworker of mine at the fire department, let’s call him Rick, had a son who joined the Army in the buddy program. Steve (the son) joined with his best friend, Sam. They went everywhere together. Basic training, combat medic school, and eventually, Iraq.

While they were in Iraq, Steve received a Silver Star for his actions in combat when his unit was ambushed. He later told me that there were so many RPG’s flying by, that you would have thought they were next to the factory that made the damned things. Steve risked his own life to carry multiple wounded soldiers to safety while under fire. The one that he couldn’t carry, Steve laid on top of him and shielded his body from further injury with his own.

Steve came back from Iraq a changed man. I know, because I knew him both as a boy, and as a veteran. I watched him as a teenager, then became his paramedic instructor when he returned with his best friend Sam and they tried to adapt to civilian life.

Sam just couldn’t make the adjustment, and his demons eventually caught him. Sam took his own life several years after returning. The man that he was, was killed in Iraq.

Sam was one of the 22 veterans each day who commit suicide. Even though he didn’t die while he was there, he surely was wounded down in his very soul. One of the things I have always complained about with the US military is that they don’t prepare their members for the life that comes after. You barely get a handshake and a kick in the ass on the way out.

Even though they didn’t die while IN the service, the service was certainly a large factor in their deaths. Honor those who gave all, some years after their service. Sam deserved better than that.

Each year on Memorial Day, we should take a minute to remember those who died in the service of their countries. Not only in general, but specifically. This year, I have chosen to honor and remember a servicemember who did not die in combat, but did die because of her service. She was killed on April 14, 1988 by a terrorist car bomb that struck the USO in Naples, Italy.

I am talking about Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Simone Santos. Not every servicemember who gave their lives did so in combat. This post is to remember all of those who have paid the ultimate price in the service of their nation, its people, and the ideals that it aspires to.