I was at sea for Memorial Day and couldn't get to the cemetery so when I got home I visited it. I had been made aware of the grave by the man's widow.
Earlier this morning I ran a search on him and found out he was a National Guardsman on deployment and was killed by an IED. He left behind a wife and son. From what little I could gather he was one of the good guys. I saw where the man had an education and probably could have commissioned. Instead my guess is he chose to stay enlisted. This is not uncommon. Some people prefer being enlisted.
Every so often I wander through a veteran's cemetery and wonder about the people occupying the graves. People seem to forget that the military is nothing more or less than a random slice of the people of our country. Each enlisted for their own reasons and served differently.
Some were true heroes, others were bums. Putting on a uniform doesn't automatically make one a saint. Every single one of those uniforms is filled with a human being and humans have vices and virtues.
Mention John Basilone to a Marine and the Marine will beam with pride. Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor after his action in the Solomons. He truly was a hero and after his war bond tour he insisted on shipping out with another outfit. He was killed in action at Iwo Jima.
Mention one Maynard 'Snuffy' Smith to an Airman and you'll often be treated to a huge, semi embarrassed yet proud grin and the airman will reply, "Yup. Snuffy is one of ours."
Smith was a one way, self centered, nasty disagreeable jerk nobody wanted anything to do with. Yet on his first combat mission he spent three long hours fighting off German attacks, tending the wouned and putting out a fire. When the fire extinguishers were exhausted he put the remainder of the fire out with his own urine. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for these actions.
When they went to pin the medal on him he was nowhere to be found and they finally located him on KP duty because he had fouled up again.
Shortly after the medal was pinned on him he was quietly reduced from staff sergeant to private and is the only MOH awardee I know of to be busted after the medal was awarded.
When I wander through the veteran's part of a cemetery I see the graves of American citizens that wrote a check to the US government payable for anything up to and including their lives.
Then I wonder if I am looking at the grave of a hero, a bum, both or something in between. My guess is most of them are occupied by someone in between. I also know that for every medal awarded there are a number of unsung heroes that didn't get noticed as well as a number of bums that didn't get caught.
As for the grave I visited, I'm sure it was the grave of a good family man that was another one of us just trying to do the right thing. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
Rest in peace, soldier.
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