Posted on 09/10/2006 12:27:14 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
[There an extra subject at the end of this. It has nothing to do with the main subject, but needed to be mentioned this week.]
Before Thursday, I had never attended any ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. On that day, we went to Arlington for the inurnment of the ashes of a great friend, colleague, and teacher, Robert Carleson. I’ve written about Bob before, and any reader can find several find obituaries on him from months ago, when he died. Suffice to say, Bob did more for the long-term well-being of the United States than many who have served as President.
This column is about the very simple, but very powerful, ceremony with which America lays its heros to rest at Arlington, both the well-known heroes, and those who are known primarily to their family, friends, and shipmates.
I say shipmates because Bob was a Marine who served in Korea – mostly on shore, because he was a spotter for naval gunfire. So, the last words the Chaplain in his navy dress whites, spoke at the grave side ceremony was, “To my shipmate, may you have fair winds and following seas.”
The ceremony began in the Chapel at Ft. Myers. Only about a hundred people were present in the small but elegant building on the base, just a few steps from a side entrance to Arlington. Normally, the prelude music is an organ solo, but not here. The last music before the ceremony was the Navy Hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” from a Navy Band just outside the Chapel.
The ceremony was short, and on a precise schedule as are all things military. Three hymns, a reading, and a eulogy by former Attorney General, Ed Meese. Then, we followed a horse-drawn caisson and the Navy Honor Guard as they followed the caisson into Arlington.
I watched the faces of the young men and women in the Honor Guard and Band. Few if any of them had been born by 1984, when Bob Carleson left the White House staff. They probably knew only two things about the man they were helping to bury, his name and the fact that he had served honorably in the US Marines.
I was most impressed by the precision and solemnity these young men and women brought to their task. For those who have never seen it, the ceremony by which an American flag is folded into a blue triangle with stars showing, for presentation by the commanding officer to the family, is elaborate, with every gesture done in ways that may trace back centuries in military lore.
It was also interesting to watch the faces of the Americans from all walks of life who were among the thousands who visit Arlington, every day. They, like the Honor Guard, had no idea about the life of the man who was being carried to his final rest. But they stopped, and watched, and experienced the simple dignity that America shows to those who have served her, with no distinction between those who died in the nation’s service, and those who lived in service to the nation for more than five decades, and the families of many of those.
The team of riflemen fired four volleys. The service seemed to be at an end when Bob’s ashes were placed in the mausoleum, one of a dozen which are being built to receive 40,000 Americans, as time passes. But, as we were walking away from the mausoleum, a lone piper appeared, playing “Amazing Grace,” as we left that place on a knoll, overlooking Washington, D.C., from edge of what was once the estate of Robert E. Lee.
The funeral service for a man whose name never made headline news, might not seem to be an important occasion. And yet, its importance lies in that fact. This is how America treats her sons and daughters – all of them – who have served and then come to rest at Arlington. There was no less dignity and honor in this ceremony for Bob Carleson than there was in the ceremonies for Presidential burials which I have seen on TV in my decades.
And that simple fact says a great deal about Bob Carleson, and about the nation he loved so long and served so well.
Post Script, Predictions for Congress: About Labor Day every two years, I lay down a marker for predictions for Congress. Senate: Republicans lose 2 seats, unless they take both Maryland and New Jersey, and the loss is 1. House: Republicans lose 6 seats; if the Democrats take NC 11th District, make that 7. (In 2004, I was off by just 1 House seat.)
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About the Author: John Armor is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, who may again be a candidate for Congress in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
Many thanks for posting this.
Your daddy's a hero.
Notice it is mismarked LTC. Ah, well.
My Grandfather is also buried at Arlington, but further away from the Lee-Custis Mansion.
a man whose name never made headline news
My favorite kind of guy.
Tradition, Honor, Courage
Godspeed Marine
Semper Fi...
Thanks John
TT
My Dad's there, just around the corner....
Thank you. Our best for the upcoming election!
There was much we did not have in common -- faith (they were agnostic) & politics (compared to me they were somewhat liberal) -- but my friend and his wife (both WWII+ military) will forever remain in my memory as true Americans and remembered fondly. I pray for their souls, and whenever business takes me to D.C. I try to make time to stop by Arlington National Cemetery and pay my respects.
Here lies the ashes of a very good man (and Carolyn, his, wife, on the obverse).
My father is buried at Arlington. As an adolescent young man watching his flag draped casket braced over his grave, the seven Marines fired their rifles in three volleys with one ordering the shooting in a clear crisp voice, letting everyone present know a sacrificed life would not be forgotten.
It was years later on one of many return visits to his grave that I learned the first men buried in Arlington were some of the first Union soldiers that had lost their lives in Civil War battles in Virginia. General Lee's home grounds were chosen for their burial to send him a message. They buried those soldiers nearby his house overlooking the Potomac and Washington.
My regiment has lost over fifty men since 9/11.
That is not many... until you consider our size. Perhaps a dozen of them are in that sanctified site, where their remains lie alongside those that once housed similar spirits.
The hard part, of course, is continuing to serve after the uniform is hung in the mothball-smelling closet. Sounds like your friend served, one way or another, his whole life. And left behind a few who were privileged to know him.
And now his bones, too, will lie among the nation's greatest sons'.
That is not a bad coda to one's mortal days.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
the infowarrior
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