Posted on 10/17/2004 7:00:12 PM PDT by VPMWife78
Brent Morel's ultimate sacrifice mourned and celebrated
Two by two, they approached the helmet sitting atop the butt of the rifle — while the weapon's bayonet stuck in the ground.
They knelt. They prayed. Some crossed themselves.
Then they rose. One reached out and squeezed the dog tags draped over the rifle. Another touched the top of the helmet, tapping it like teammates before a football game. A comrade before had stroked it as a child's head, making contact one last time with the presence it had held.
Then they moved on, making room for the next pair of men in tan- colored fatigues.
Such is mourning amid combat over the loss of a comrade. It can be even more intense when the one who has fallen is the leader responsible for keeping everyone else alive.
But the mission must move forward. That's the way he would have wanted it. That's why he gave his life. He accomplished what he set out to do — you're alive and safe.
Now get up and get moving.
This scene has undoubtedly been repeated many times across Iraq and Afghanistan. But what makes this memorial service more extraordinary is that it was captured on video in a combat zone. It recounts the heroics of a Tennessean, Marine Capt. Brent Morel of McKenzie, Tenn., who stopped an insurgent ambush of his convoy by charging over open field with five other Marines behind him, taking the fight to a superior force.
He saved every Marine life that day, except his own.
Morel's gunnery sergeant has been filming his time in Iraq. And he captured the fateful battle that took Morel's life and the memorial service that followed. Marines are shown firing from their Humvee as commands are given:
''Engage, dammit!''
''Move forward to the berm!''
A week ago, I was privileged along with Tennessee registered nurse anesthetists to watch a DVD of these scenes compiled by Morel's mother and father, Molly and Mike Morel. It is one way to preserve their son's memory and answer why he served. Another is a college scholarship fund they are raising in his name to educate the children of Marines, particularly those who have fallen in the war on terror. Capt. Morel was a University of Tennessee graduate.
And they are allowing me to show this amazing DVD to community groups I speak to. I want to honor their son and show what he believed in and what the men who followed him believe.
I have no idea what it means to lose a son, let alone one killed in combat. Brent Morel died last April. Now it is October. All I can tell you is it takes a lot of courage for a father to get up in front of several hundred people and speak of his loss. Mike Morel, himself an anesthetist, did that a week ago, at a podium next to the flag that had draped his son's coffin. When he spoke of the Marine scholarship fund, his voice broke upon noting that recipients included children whose parents had given ''the ultimate sacrifice.''
''I get stuck on those words every time,'' he told the audience.
Afterward, Morel recounted to me a recent conversation with his wife:
''If I live to 80, will it still hurt this bad?'' Morel asked her. ''It wrenches your gut and rips out your heart. There is not a day we haven't cried.''
Yet he made sure to add: ''But I'm still supporting Bush.''
That struck me as strange. Yet I didn't pursue it. I waited to send him an e-mail last week to ask why he added that. President Bush ordered his son into Iraq where he ultimately died, as have more than 1,000 U.S. men and women. I told Morel that some readers might find his support of the president hard to understand. He replied:
''Under the Bush administration, the military were finally getting the 'stuff' they needed. Better pay, housing, supplies. 'Beans, bullets, boots, and Band-aids,' as I have heard many say. Almost all of the junior officers I was acquainted with through Brent loved President Bush.
''I do not want the deaths of our sons, daughters, moms, dads, brothers and sisters to be in vain. I have seen the pictures of things accomplished over there. … The vast majority of Iraqis are grateful for their freedoms and to be rid of Saddam but that does not create news. I really feel that Bush will get it finished.
''Am I Republican or Democrat? I am for America and those who can demonstrate support for our military people.''
Yes, there are families of the fallen who feel quite differently from Mike Morel. They feel their loved ones died for a lie. And that feeling should be respected and given weight, too.
Yet the National Annenberg Election Survey released Friday of military personnel and families showed almost 70% said they trusted Bush more as commander-in-chief than John Kerry, AP reported. And Kerry's vote even against what is considered a justified and successful Gulf War in 1991 has hurt him among the military and their loved ones.
But elections are fleeting. And politicians come and go. On this incredible DVD are the words and deeds that supersede the political moment. Brent Morel's men gave inspiring readings of words and thoughts that move and strengthen them in combat. One was the following from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt on ''Citizenship in a Republic, The Man in the Arena'':
''It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.''
I hope to bring Capt. Brent Morel's story and the character of his men to my fellow Tennesseans in the months to come, in gratitude to his parents and as proof that free men and women will triumph in Iraq because they dare to try.
Don't forget my hometown's hero Sgt. Dan Daly, Glen Cove, NY. Famous for asking his Marines in the heat of battle "Do you Son's of B*tches want to live forever?".
I realize that.
The official title is "Medal of Honor".
No congressional.
http://www.cmohs.org/medal.htm
Many people are also confused by the CMH website and it's Medal of Honor page, but CMH stands for the Center of Military History in Washington, DC.
The only reason I'm so nitpicky about this, is I knew a couple recipients, both of who quickly corrected me when I used 'congressional'.
All armed forces commissions are approved by Congress, but they aren't refferred to as 'congressional'.
One of the recipients, Franklin D. Miller, died about 2 years ago.
and GySgt Michael J. Clark r.i.p.
8^(
ooops sorry , I stand corrected , thank you very much
Yes, he has been nominated for the MOH.
great news! Semper Fi !
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.