Soldier Dead by Michael Sledge

Author:Michael Sledge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS036000, History/United States/General, HIS027110, History/Military/United States
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2005-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

[ 6. Burial ]

The grass is waking in the ground,

Soon it will rise and blow in waves—

How can it have the heart to sway

Over the graves,

New graves?

—SARA TEASDALE, “Spring in War Time”

NORMAN WARREN BIRCHER, Harry Warner Jr., and Glendon Place all have one thing in common: they died during the Normandy Invasion and are 3 of the more than 9,000 who now lie buried in the American cemetery overlooking the beaches where they spilled their blood. This graveyard (it is a graveyard, despite the prevalence of euphemisms) is a beautiful sight, as are Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the Punchbowl National Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii, Meuse-Argonne Cemetery near Verdun, France, and the other cemeteries that hold the remains of our military fallen.

The “Fields of Honor” which American servicemen and -women have fought, died, and been buried have claimed their share of emotional real estate, and the sites help to both form and preserve an image that reminds citizens collectively that someone else paid the price for their well-being. Few of those who walk through the rows and rows of white crosses and stars are not viscerally overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of bodies that lie beneath them. And few of those visitors realize the efforts extended by the living to provide a final resting place for those who made the supreme sacrifice. If they did, their gratitude would extend also to these unnamed heroes who had to care for the dead on the difficult journey from battlefields to temporary graves to permanent cemeteries.

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