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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
The National Cemetary at Arlington has become a major tourist attraction. In the 40's and 50's it was sort of a quiet, peaceful out-of-the-way place. It was open for visitation 24 hours a day and those who came and went did so in silent reverence. All that changed after the Kennedy funeral...Arlington became an International Tourist Attraction...and things got out of hand...They had to build a massuive visitors center...and a large parking lot. You had to have special authorization to enter the cemetary gate with a vehicle. Only immediate family of an individual resting in Arlington could obtain a vehicle pass....So they contracted for several colorful tourist trams to haul tourists on abbreviated tours of the cemetary with the driver giving an amplified running commentary with a bullhorn, on the prominent gravesites. People walking to the Kennedy gravesite, were required to take a specially marked path that went to the Kennedy gravesite, the Ampatheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Vendors hawking souveniers, cemetary maps, brochures and pamphlets lined the walkway...there were folks selling geedunk, popcorn and canned pop along the way. Those who got tired simply sat down on the nearest headstone, drank a pop...got wrapped around a hotdog or caught a smoke. They had to put wire trash baskets along the walkway to keep folks from littering. It is said that Jimmy Carter saw this when attending the service for a naval officer he served with, and had all vendors barred....He also had tourists barred from taking curiosity photos of private funeral services...To avoid problems and to meet the need for tourist momentos a souvenier gift shop was opened in the visitors center. All souveniers were required to be reverential and tastreful...no Tomb Sentry bobblehead dolls or Honor Guard handpuppets. So today, you can enter the cemetary and visit your loved one and avoid everything but the visitor trams with their amplified discourse. So day before yesterday, I visited my bride and afterwards drove around watching lads from the Third Infantry and Scouts setting the small flags in front of the heaqstones...(Possibly of interest....How do they set each flag in the same position? They place the heel of their boot at exactly the middle of the headstone with the toe pointed straight ahead and place the flag at the middle of the toe, and shove it in the ground 2". ) . As I drove around the grounds, I came across scenes that Norman Rockwell captured so well on canvas. There were two old people kneeling holding hands in front of a double headstone, a young fellow placing flowers (floral tributes are discouraged and are removed by groundskeepers when spotted. Plastic flowers are strictly forbidden.)....There was some kind of tribute being conducted by the Jewish War Veterans up by the USS MAINE mast....There was an open grave, with a canvas, metal pole supported, sun awning next to the excavated grave...and fifty or sixty steel folding chairs set up....a bugler and firing squad stood at relaxed "parade rest" out at curbside. A box of blank ammo sat in the passengers seat of a nearby Humvee. A young father and mother were shepherding three toddlers across the grass toward the Columbarium and an old man with a cane and his aged wrinkled sweethearts hand, stopped to talk and inquired as to whom I had come to visit. What a truly wonderful place....It is a place where distinctions in rank...political philosophy...religion...race...and other earthly differences, don't matter worth a damn....It is a magnificent piece of real estate where you can obtain a forever lease for you and your dearest, whose only cost is an HONORABLE DISCHARGE and your DD-214....Talk about good deals you get from your government...That's got to be the top one on your list. DEX |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 877
| Subject: My best friend
Dex,
My best friend of 20 years, Bob Finton, rests in the Columbarium at Arlington, not too far away from where Solveig rests. Bob served in Company D, 3rd US Infantry and I had the honour to attend his inurnment (as I did Solveig's). In all the time I knew Bob, his proudest times were those he spent in the Old Guard. At times, when he'd be helping me move, Bob would still be doing the manual of arms that he learned.
The Old Guard soldiers who participated in Bob's ceremony were from his old unit, Company D... when I heard that, I could imagine my friend smiling and saying "damned appropriate".
I couldn't think of a better place for my friend... a proud soldier. |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 561
| Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
The American Cemetery at Luxembourg is still a quiet place. Lots of trees, green grass on gently rolling hills, and thousands of stark white tombstones. Both Jewish Stars and Crosses. Walking around the memorials I noticed the name on one for bomber crews lost over Germany, Pvt Gene 'Doc' Alford, my Mothers first cousin. He was a tail gunner on a bomber that was lost on their first mission. Said a silent prayer while a tear formed in my eye.
Then walking around the grounds I noticed a marker a little larger than the rest off to one side. Walking over I read "Gen George Patton" on the stone. I had not know that he was buried there. I knew that he had died in Germany after the war and wanted to be buried with his 'men' but not where. He is still at the front of his troops, leading in memory.
'Hand Salute guys' for service given.
T.Spoon, DBF |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
Jim, It was a tough day, but I will be eternally grateful for all my submarine friends, to include you, who made it that day. Especially the contingent from New London and those who joined up along the way....the placque from John Wynn, Raynor and Rontini, that I am looking at as I write this. The bad thing about naming names is that you leave folks out and I can't do that. But, your presence was deeply appreciated. As for your friend...He could not be in a finer place...Arlington is the 21st Century equivalent of Valhalla, where dues payers go for pre-Judgement Day storage. When I go to see her, I see my name carved in that marble plate and it feels weird....but it is nice to know where you'll be and that your kids won't have to drop you off at the Alpo plant. I always wanted to be cremated and shot out of the GDU while two messcooks stood at attention and over the 21MC they were playing Tommy Cox's DIESEL BOATS FOREVER. Man. that would have been a class act. Seriously thanks for taking the time to tell her goodbye. It sure made me proud to have been a boatsailor. DEX |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 877
| Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
Dex,
It was my pleasure and my honour.. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
There is a genleman...did I say, "gentleman"?...Seriously, there's a gentleman who calls himself BOY THROTTLEMAN,(Mike Hemming) who crafts prose that tosses logs on the fire in a good man's heart. Mike is quite a writer...the kind English teachers brag about teaching. Well, several years back I attended a service in Arlington National Cemetary. It was a memorial service to honor those who died on the F-4 and a "tolling of the bell" for all the lost boats....Ned Beach (Capt Edward L. Beach Jr. USN(ret)) gave us a talk where he recreated the last thirty minutes of the loss of the F-4 and her crew. It seems that a unseen battery acid leak had actually eaten its' way through the pressure hull. After Ned Beach gave his talk...Someone, I forget who...read a beautiful piece composed by Mike Hemming. It was a beautiful,. bright sunny day...one of those blue sky, puffy clouds days...hillsides of just green verdant grass and row after row of bleached white headstones...and Mike's words...at one point, seemingly for theatrical emphasis, the sounds of a buglar playing taps at some graveside service drifted through the air. Mikes wonderful words hit home and took root,. Even Ned Beach was moved...Mike...If you're out there and have access to that piece would you post it? Thanks your Shipmate DEX |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 892
Location: Palo Pinto County, Texas | Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
We Did Not Forget You
by Mike Hemming
On this sacred hillside, the rows of stones seemingly march outwardforever. The air here seems saturated with the solemn fading notes ofTaps, it's played so often. Smoke from gun salutes seems to hangpermanently in the air as a soft blue-gray haze. Submarine veterans arelooking for one small stone, there near an old tree they find it. Ithas taken weeks to find this small old stone marking the resting placeof 17 men, listed on the stone as 'UNKNOWN'. Seeing this, grown men crybecause these men were not unknown. Their names were known and the 17men deserved better than one small anonymous stone. They were our firstloses of the over 3,800 men that have followed them in over 100 years.Seventeen of our brothers in arms needed to have their names inscribedon a stone for all that come to this sacred place to read and remember. Submarine sailorspride themselves on remembering those that gave all in our history.When these men died, that tradition hadn't been created yet and so theywere placed in a mass grave marked by a small stone and listed as 17unknowns. Now on this MemorialDay, the submarine veterans come back to this hallowed ground ingreater numbers to dedicate a new stone in keeping with the sacrificeof the 17. Submarine sailors made sure they got their names back bylisting them on this new stone. That this injustice has been correctedshows that our pride and traditions are intact. For this is how we passthose things on to those that follow us by proving, we did not and willnot forget you. CASUALTIES OF THE USS F-4 George T. Ashcroft, GM1; Clark G. Buck, GM2; Ernest C. Cauvin, MM2; Harley Colwell, EMC; Walter F. Covington, MM1; George L. Deeth, EM1; Alfred L. Ede, LT (CO); Frederick Gilman, GM1; Aliston H. Grindle, EMC; Frank N. Herzog, EM2; Edwin S. Hill, MM1; Francis M. Hughson, MM1; Albert F. Jennie, EM2; Archie H. Lunger, GM2; Ivan L. Mahan, MM1; Horace L. Moore, GM1; William S. Nelson, MMC; Timothy A. Parker, ENS (XO); Frank C. Pierard, GMC; Charles H. Wells, MM2; Henry A. Withers, GM1. These are some the men that cared and did not let us forget: RIchard Mendelson, Tom Denton, Ron Williams, Paul Meinke, Jim Mandelblatt, Mike Thresher. [click the header for the link]
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3202
Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Thanks Roy
My sincerest thanks Roy....It's still as potent as the day that magnificent rascal wrote it. Thanks again...DEX |
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Old Salt
Posts: 431
| Subject: RE: The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
Thank you both Roy and Dex.
The words I write are but a small gift returned for the great gift that is being a submarine sailor.
I could write from now until doomsday and the debt would never be paid off. That my words were part of a service for these men is an honor. I thank Tom Denton for allowing me to be a part of that service.
Dex my English teachers thought my entering submarines was a gift to them, they truly hoped my prose and attempts at poetry would not resurface with me.
But 30 years later it was to be to no avail. When I had something I cared to write about my writing improved to at least the point of readability. Beowulf and Ivanhoe didnt cut it as being worth writing about. |
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The Little Unseen, Unharalded Tributes
