On Army Base, a Plea to Give Each Death Its Due
FORT LEWIS, Wash. ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ Twenty soldiers deployed to Iraq from the Army base here were killed in May, a monthly high. That same month, the base announced a change in how it would honor its dead: instead of units holding services after each death, they would be held collectively once a month. The anger and hurt were immediate. Soldiers’ families and veterans protested the change as cold and logistics-driven. Critics online said the military was trying to repress bad news about deaths. By mid-June, the base had delayed the plan…. “If I lost my husband at the beginning of the month, what do you do, wait until the end of the month?” asked Toni Shanyfelt, who said her husband was serving one of multiple tours in Iraq. “I don’t know if it’s more convenient for them, or what, but that’s insane.”
Soldiers who fought in Korea and Vietnam might have some difficulty grasping the significance of the controversy at Ft. Lewis. Today’s Army, though, is an all-volunteer force, and organization far different in makeup and complexity that yesteryear’s largely conscript-staffed military. Our modern Army is a career choice for many, which means that family and community are much more closely woven into the fabric of everyday military life. Sure, there are aspects of Army life that never have and never will change, but at the end of a day or the end of a tour, a soldier more likely than not returns to a base that is much more of a community that existed during previous wars. This also explains why deaths of soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan hits so hard and so close to home, and why commemorating individual deaths is so important to those left behind.
In an all-volunteer Army, people serve because they’ve made a conscious decision to. It’s a career choice, and those soldiers they serve with are significant in the same way that our coworkers are to you and me. Imagine going to work one day, only to find out that the person who worked at the desk next to your was killed. You’d probably want to find some way to remember that person; soldiers in today’s Army and the community that surrounds them are no different.
During Vietnam and Korea, the historians say, many bases were places for training soldiers and shipping them out, rarely to see them return, with memorial services uncommon. Now, in the age of the all-volunteer force, the base has become the center of community. The Army and other branches have fostered the idea that military service is as much about education, job training and belonging to a community as national defense.
“It wasn’t considered the Army’s business in any of the other wars to conduct these services,” said Alan H. Archambault, director of the Fort Lewis Military Museum, which is supported by the Army. “It was the hometowns of the soldiers that died that had these. Now I think the Army bases are trying to be the hometowns.”
Army officials said the idea to hold monthly services reflected a need to find balance between honoring the dead and the practical reality that the services take time to plan, including things like coordinating rifle salutes and arranging receptions for family members who attend.
“As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies,” Brig. Gen. William Troy, who was the interim commander at Fort Lewis at the time, wrote in an e-mail message announcing the policy in May.
While I can certainly understand the concerns of Gen. Troy, what his policy fails to recognize is the impact that the deaths of individual soldiers have on those left behind. People need to be able to feel as if they can grieve and honor an individual soldier’s sacrifice. Going to a once-a-month schedule simply comes off as a ham-handed attempt to gloss over the reality of the suffering created by Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s © pointless and never-ending war against a terrorist threat of his own creation.
Simply put, people at Ft. Lewis understand that lives are being wasted, and Gen. Troy’s policy probably feels an awful lot like gross and inexcusable disrespect for fallen soldiers. No, Gen. Troy no doubt never intended this to be the case, but the end result is the same…and it’s just plain wrong.
Americans who die in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve to be remembered as individuals, not as part of some sort of officially faceless collective dutifully memorialized once a month. It’s the least that can and should be done to recognize the senseless wasting of their lives.
