Cemetery Sighting

There's a word for people who, well, love cemeteries: taphophilia.  

While that's not exactly me, I do find burial places interesting, even fascinating, and explore them whenever I can.  I always see something novel or puzzling, and come away wondering all those W words: who, what, when, where, and most importantly, why.

This is my latest find:

Image credit Gary, from cemetery beside the Butcher Shoppe on Stouffer Avenue, Chambersburg, PA (may be called Stoufferstown Cemetery)

Bronze military flag holders are probably familiar to most folks, especially those of WWII vets and the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) ones honoring the graves of Union vets of the Civil War.

But this is the first I've ever seen of Spanish-American War vets. Note the "CUBA" at the top.  I need to return to take some more photos: the day I snapped this was blindingly bright and sunny, and I had an impatient little one in tow.  Plus, although this grave is literally right beside the street, it's tucked into in a blind fenced corner with limited access.  Thus I cannot even tell you who is buried here--I just focused on the bronze Spanish-American War veterans' marker.

If you want to read a bit more to catch the flavor of this interest, I encountered an couple of blogs you might want to check outs:

A Strange Case of Taphophilia
The Strange Hobby of Graving

As an aside, from the second link above I note how aficionados of this "hobby" seemingly refer to themselves as "gravers."  I get it--when I was in my teens and 20s I was an avid caver and it always drove me absolutely nuts when people would use the word "spelunker."

People who cave (yes, that's a real verb) never use the word spelunker.  NEVER.  Guess a similar process holds true for taphophiles.

Home for a Soldier--A Different Take on a Heartwarming Story

 From my local newspaper, the Chambersburg Public Opinion:

GUILFORD TOWNSHIP -- Saturday's groundbreaking ceremony didn't just mark the beginning of a new home for Marine Sgt. Zachary Stinson, but also a new life post-injury for he and his family in a community that has rallied to support them.

While life for Stinson, his wife, Tesa, and their daughter, Olivia, has been forever changed since he lost both his legs on Nov. 9, 2010, to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, they've been thankful for all the love and support they've received from family, friends and even people they've never met as they continue the move forward.

"It's completely amazing to see all these faces," Stinson said at Saturday's groundbreaking. "This has been incredible. I couldn't ask for a better place to call home."

Their next step forward includes a new specialized home with the help of Homes For Our Troops, a nonprofit organization founded in 2004 to help severely-injured veterans and their immediate families.

Since 2010, the family has mostly lived in hospitals and temporary homes, Stinson said. A home in North Carolina where they lived right after he got out of the hospital just didn't fit their needs. And while their current townhouse in the Shippensburg area is better, Homes For Our Troops will build one that provides more freedom and independence.

With the help of local volunteers, including Stinson's mother-in-law Tracy Burk, who organized many fundraisers, Homes For Our Troops hopes to have everything completed in three to four months.

"Today, we are surrounded by heroes," said spokeswoman Ashley Twigg. "Homes For Our Troops at its heart is a grassroots organization. It's our boots on the ground in every project that determines its success."

In this country, there are more than 50,000 members of the military who have received a Purple Heart, said Homes For Our Troops President Tim McHale. For the 15,000 recipients who have been classified as severely wounded though, life is never truly the same.

"That's why we are here today," McHale said. "He's sacrificed so much. Every day of his life Zach Stinson knows what Afghanistan is like and it will never be in his rearview mirror."

This story is being played out all across these United States, in communities large and small.  It will be taken by many as proof that people do care, that there is genuine concern and support for our soldiers and their sacrifices.

With that thought I do not disagree--it shows the best in all of us.

But I take another message from this: that our government, who was quite willing to place troops in harm's way, has dropped the ball on then taking care of those troops.  Bottom line is that if we put troops in harm's way, and they get harmed, then we have the moral obligation to take care of them. Forever. No brainer. I've previously blogged here about the Earth-Bound Misfit's common-sense take on this:

If we, as a nation, are unwilling to shoulder the financial burden of caring for our military retirees and veterans, then this is what we should do: Stop making so many veterans by getting into wars. When the shooting starts, there are going to be maimed veterans who will need care for the next eighty years. If that cost is unacceptable to the politicians, then stop sending men and women off to fight. No fighting, no combat veterans to care for-- that should be a simple enough equation for even most politicians to grasp.

Awesome as Homes For Our Troops is, it is an organization that should not exist.  ALL OF US--via the Veterans Administration--should be paying for and administering this program.  Injured vets should never have to rely upon the goodwill and charity of others.

Another (Cynical) Veteran's Day Post...and Ultrarunning

Via Jude at First Draft, in a post called "I Didn't Fight for Your Freedom," that is actually more realistic rather than cynical.  Pretty much in its entirety:

So it's Veterans Day, which means that the US is awash with mostly obligatory tributes to military personnel.

I hate this shit.

I didn't fight for your freedoms. In the six years I was in, I never once defended your right to vote, or to carry a gun, or to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure (that one doesn't really apply anymore, anyway), or any of the other things you enjoy as a citizen of this country. I just didn't. Neither did anyone who went to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Vietnam. It's all bullshit. It's a fucking lie that we tell ourselves and each other so that we don't have to think about why we send young men and women to serve, suffer, and die for old men's vainglorious ideas and profit margins.

I don't mind honoring sacrifice, but the military doesn't have a monopoly on that, now does it? I also don't mind remembering military dead and wounded. But we do it all wrong. We just fetishize the suffering (like good Catholics, no?) without wondering why it ever happened in the first place. Remembrance and memorial, it would seem, also involve reflection and assessment. Just because someone died or was wounded doesn't automatically validate how he or she came to be in that state. We send our young people overseas to be bored, pull duty, sometimes get shot at, and occasionally get hit. Then we never ask why they're over there in the first fucking place, because doing so, apparently, does them a disservice. What kind of jack shit is that?

A real Veterans/Remembrance Day would involve commitments to cease sacrifices that don't actually, you know, do anything in the name of freedom. Losing your legs so that Chevron can see higher profit margins is not noble. It's a god damned shame. Dying in the service of defense contractors doesn't bestow sainthood on the deceased. It just means that a life got snuffed out for no good reason. Reflexive military worship is a cancer on society. Unscrupulous people use it to justify their actions and avoid any criticism. That shit makes the act of asking why we should send young people to absorb bullets and get blown to pieces into some kind of subversion and/or sedition. How fucking ridiculous is that? Wondering if someone's death was worth the cost doesn't dishonor the person. I don't know how we've confused evaluating the motives and actions of leaders with spitting on corpses, but we have. And until we can untangle those things, we're just well and truly fucked when it comes to international affairs.

So this Veterans Day, take a minute to actually reflect on the acts and deeds of people in uniform. But that involves critical thought instead of blind acceptance of the rightness of our leaders' actions. Honor the dead and care for the living, but don't think that people in uniform today are actually standing between you and tyranny.

Remember that.
 

There is no nexus to Ultrarunning here.  Politically and militarily we run roughshod over the world because we can and we choose to.  Our military doesn't protect our fundamental right to run, as many of us might like to imply.

 

Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story

I am reposting the same post I have put up for the past 2 years on 11 Nov, commemorating the end of World War I.
============================

Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story

For Veteran's Armistice Day (as it was originally called)....

Every family has a story. My mother told me of my great-grandfather, Julius (or Jules?) Brinkmann, who was killed on this date in 1918 in World War I on the Western Front.

Word of the armistice, which took effect the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, did not reach all the lines in real time. He was killed sometime later that day, AFTER the armistice.

He would have been one of the very last casualties of the Great War. You know, the war that was supposed to end all wars.

Oh, and he was a German. Funny, that really doesn't seem to matter, does it?

What is your family story? Please comment.

This is a generic photo, not of Julius...but it could have been.

Photo credit here.

 

 

Where They Lived

I'll conclude my Memorial Day series of posts with the May 2012 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, containing a sad article entitled "Where They Lived."

Author T. A. Frail and photographer Ashley Gilbertson teamed up to document homes where grieving parents have preserved intact the bedrooms of their dead servicemember children.

There's a balance between remembrance and getting over it.  I hope never to have to walk in those shoes and I will never criticize any family's choices on such a personal matter.

My heart goes out to all those thousands of families whose lives have been shattered forever.  May peace be yours.

By the way, the photo above is of the bedroom of Army Pfc. Richard P. Langenbrunner, 19, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Langenbrunner committed suicide on April 17, 2007, in Rustimayah, Iraq.  This bedroom, with its PC and telescope, looks like the kind of bedroom I would have loved as a teenager.  I can't even imagine the kind of wartime stress and hurt that would have caused a 19 year old kid to kill himself.

 

Affording the Disabled Vet

May as well continue with the Memorial Day theme.

My local paper, the Chambersburg Public Opinion, carried an Associated Press article on Monday:

Almost Half of New Vets Seek Disability

A staggering 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. That is more than double the estimate of 21 percent who filed such claims after the Gulf War in the early 1990s, top government officials told The Associated Press.

What's more, these new veterans are claiming eight to nine ailments on average, and the most recent ones over the last year are claiming 11 to 14. By comparison, Vietnam veterans are currently receiving compensation for fewer than four, on average, and those from World War II and Korea, just two.

It's unclear how much worse off these new veterans are than their predecessors. Many factors are driving the dramatic increase in claims — the weak economy, more troops surviving wounds, and more awareness of problems such as concussions and PTSD. Almost one-third have been granted disability so far.

Bottom line is that if we put troops in harm's way, and they get harmed, then we have the moral obligation to take care of them.  Forever.  No brainer.  I've previously blogged here about the Earth-Bound Misfit's common-sense take on this:

If we, as a nation, are unwilling to shoulder the financial burden of caring for our military retirees and veterans, then this is what we should do: Stop making so many veterans by getting into wars. When the shooting starts, there are going to be maimed veterans who will need care for the next eighty years. If that cost is unacceptable to the politicians, then stop sending men and women off to fight. No fighting, no combat veterans to care for-- that should be a simple enough equation for even most politicians to grasp.

And here's another almost-unnoticed fact from the AP article if you clicked over.  If you are deemed 100% disabled, you get $2,769 a month. That's $33,228 a year, not a whole lot if you are totally disabled.  Locally I occasionally read about fundraisers to build or fix up homes for vets now wheelchair-bound, and I gotta say, "This community spirit is commendable, but why isn't it the government fixing up this person's house to accommodate disability?"  He or she got hurt on the government's auspices.

 

Impromptu Bugler Sounds "Taps"

I was touched by an article in Tuesday’s paper, the Chambersburg Public Opinion.

Recently at a military funeral for an Air Force vet who served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, the electronic device that was supposed to play “Taps” failed.  The device is inserted into a trumpet that was supposed to be “played” by a member of the local color guard who serve at such ceremonies (it’s analogous to lip-synching, only it’s a trumpet).

Senior Master Sgt. Todd Kirkwood of the WV Air National Guard was at the ceremony.  His role was to present the folded U.S. flag to the family.  When the malfunction of the electronic “Taps” became apparent, Kirkwood asked the funeral director to have the family remain seated, telling him "We are going to offer this veteran Taps."   Kirkwood marched to the bugler and requested he remove the electronic device and pass Kirkwood the ceremonial bugle.

"I marched back into position and faced our fallen American hero and his family and sounded Taps," Kirkwood said. "I could see within the first two notes coming out of the horn the emotional reaction (from the family). Some members of the family stood and placed their hands over the heart."

"As always after the final note of Taps, we render the final salute," he said, after which he returned the bugle to the member of the veterans group and attempted to march back into place beside Smith.

He didn't get far.

"The family intercepted me as I passed the tent and shook my hand and thanked me," he said "I simply told them that that veteran deserved to have Taps sounded.”

Please know that while I love the United States and spent my whole career as a DOD employee, I am not a traditionally patriotic guy.  For example, I never recite the Pledge of Allegiance or sing The Star Spangled Banner, or God Bless America--although I always stand respectfully--because I believe that such coerced public expressions of patriotism are not appropriate.

But Senior Master Sgt. Todd Kirkwood’s heartfelt actions were wonderful.

 

Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story

I am reposting the same post I put up one year ago today, on the 93rd anniversary of the end of World War I.
============================

Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story

For Veteran's Armistice Day (as it was originally called)....

Every family has a story. My mother told me of my great-grandfather, Julius (or Jules?) Brinkmann, who was killed on this date in 1918 in World War I on the Western Front.

Word of the armistice, which took effect the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, did not reach all the lines in real time. He was killed sometime later that day, AFTER the armistice.

He would have been one of the very last casualties of the Great War. You know, the war that was supposed to end all wars.

Oh, and he was a German. Funny, that really doesn't seem to matter, does it?

What is your family story? Please comment.

This is a generic photo, not of Julius...but it could have been.

Photo credit here.

Armistice Day...Every Family Has a Story

For Veteran's Armistice Day (as it was originally called)....

Every family has a story.  My mother told me of my great-grandfather, Julius (or Jules?) Brinkmann, who was killed on this date in 1918 in World War I on the Western Front.

Word of the armistice, which took effect the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, did not reach all the lines in real time.  He was killed sometime later that day, AFTER the armistice.

He would have been one of the very last casualties of the Great War.  You know, the war that was supposed to end all wars.

Oh, and he was a German.  Funny, that really doesn't seem to matter, does it?

What is your family story?  Please comment.

This is a generic photo, not of Julius...but it could have been.

Photo credit here.