Final Salute

Johnny Utah

Council Member
Mar 11, 2006
1,434
1
38

Final Salute.
Denver.RockyMountainNews.com
April 26, 2006
Excerpt:


When 2nd Lt. Jim Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: "See the people in the windows? They'll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said. "They're going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should."

At the first sight of her husband's flag-draped casket, Katherine Cathey broke into uncontrollable sobs, finding support in the arms of Maj. Steve Beck. When Beck first knocked on her door in Brighton to notify her of her husband's death, she glared at him, cursed him, and refused to speak to him for more than an hour. Over the next several days, he helped guide her through the grief. By the time they reached the tarmac, she wouldn't let go.

The night before the burial of her husband, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to him for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that would have been played at a formal wedding they never held. She asked the Marines to continue standing watch. "I think that's what he would have wanted," she said.

http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/


This is a sad and powerful story worth reading, it reminds us of the sacrifices and the other side to the Cindy Sheehans we don't get to see.

The authors and cameraman won the Pulitzer prize for the story. These are just excerpts to read the entire 12 pages click on the Link.
 

mabudon

Metal King
Mar 15, 2006
1,339
30
48
Golden Horseshoe, Ontario
Too bad we're not allowed to take the kinds of pics shown here in our country anymore, and sorry to interrupt some of the boards most vehement denizens in your private grieving :D

Seriously it's nice that these folks can be so sad when touched personally by such thing, but I don't get this "other side of the Cindy Sheehans" BS

Anyone who is proud that someone they know died for the totally unjust actions currently underway in the middle east needs to give their heads a shake, especially when they decide that the best way to honour the sacrifice for democracy is to scream "unpatriotic" at folks who ask questions....

Or call folks with actual good questions "marxists" when they haven't read a lick of any political philosophy

Sorry, back to the patriotism
 

pastafarian

Electoral Member
Oct 25, 2005
541
0
16
in the belly of the mouse
mabudon: check out some of the "other side of Cindy Sheehan BS", written by Ms Sheehan, "Peace Takes Courage", concerning the correspondence she has recieved by people who call themselves "patriotic" and "Christian":
Even before I went to Crawford last summer, I was the object of these attacks by many people who touted themselves as Christians doing God's work. The attacks are rabidly obscene and horrible in their rage and just downright meanness. There are entire websites dedicated to assailing me and my character and where such comments as: "Someone ought to do the world a favor and shoot the bitch in the head to shut her up," are common

One particularly wicked threat was sent to me the night before I testified at Congressman Conyers' Downing Street Memo Hearings in June, I got an email from a man who said that he hoped that my other three children would die. I think these people level pretty harsh punishments at other people who are only exercising their freedom of speech when the person who is responsible for killing American soldiers and executing innocent Iraqi children and making them orphans is touted as a fine Christian man.

God help anyone who speaks out against the anti-American Bush regime that condones torture and use of chemical weapons of mass destruction. God help anyone who refuses to be silenced in the face of our government that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity. The individuals who call 15 year old girls and Gold Star Moms vile names and threaten our lives are the lowest denominator in our society and these people are the ones who need to be marginalized and stopped. Open and honest discourse in our society is welcomed and encouraged and our differences are only eclipsed by our commonalities, but obscene and destructive assaults on fellow human beings only adds to the violence in our already all too violent society.
 

Johnny Utah

Council Member
Mar 11, 2006
1,434
1
38
Seriously it's nice that these folks can be so sad when touched personally by such thing, but I don't get this "other side of the Cindy Sheehans" BS
The other side of the Cindy Sheehans means we have only seen in the MSM the point of view of someone like Cindy Sheehan protesting her Anti-War views while we have not seen the other point of views from other women who lost a loved one and don't get into the Anti-War protest like this wife who lost her husband.
 

cortezzz

Electoral Member
Apr 8, 2006
663
0
16
pastafarian said:
mabudon: check out some of the "other side of Cindy Sheehan BS", written by Ms Sheehan, "Peace Takes Courage", concerning the correspondence she has recieved by people who call themselves "patriotic" and "Christian":
Even before I went to Crawford last summer, I was the object of these attacks by many people who touted themselves as Christians doing God's work. The attacks are rabidly obscene and horrible in their rage and just downright meanness. There are entire websites dedicated to assailing me and my character and where such comments as: "Someone ought to do the world a favor and shoot the bitch in the head to shut her up," are common

One particularly wicked threat was sent to me the night before I testified at Congressman Conyers' Downing Street Memo Hearings in June, I got an email from a man who said that he hoped that my other three children would die. I think these people level pretty harsh punishments at other people who are only exercising their freedom of speech when the person who is responsible for killing American soldiers and executing innocent Iraqi children and making them orphans is touted as a fine Christian man.

God help anyone who speaks out against the anti-American Bush regime that condones torture and use of chemical weapons of mass destruction. God help anyone who refuses to be silenced in the face of our government that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity. The individuals who call 15 year old girls and Gold Star Moms vile names and threaten our lives are the lowest denominator in our society and these people are the ones who need to be marginalized and stopped. Open and honest discourse in our society is welcomed and encouraged and our differences are only eclipsed by our commonalities, but obscene and destructive assaults on fellow human beings only adds to the violence in our already all too violent society.

thanks for the reality check
 

Curiosity

Senate Member
Jul 30, 2005
7,326
138
63
California
Thanks Johnny

That's my world. It's real and it isn't pretty.
The families grieve and the country should show honor.
Nothing less.
The dead don't vote.
 

Johnny Utah

Council Member
Mar 11, 2006
1,434
1
38
Re: RE: Final Salute

mabudon said:
Too bad we're not allowed to take the kinds of pics shown here in our country anymore, and sorry to interrupt some of the boards most vehement denizens in your private grieving :D
Tasteless!



Anyone who is proud that someone they know died for the totally unjust actions currently underway in the middle east needs to give their heads a shake, especially when they decide that the best way to honour the sacrifice for democracy is to scream "unpatriotic" at folks who ask questions....
Disrespectful!
 

Johnny Utah

Council Member
Mar 11, 2006
1,434
1
38
Sassylassie said:
Thanks Johnny, such sorrow-it made me cry.
It's sadness,sorrow heartbreak and shows the strength of the wife trying to hold herself together.





Wednesday's Child said:
Thanks Johnny

That's my world. It's real and it isn't pretty.
The families grieve and the country should show honor.
Nothing less.
The dead don't vote.
I thought posting this would show the other side of the War we don't see in the MSM unless it's an Anti-War Protester like Cindy Sheehan.

Of course others are trying to Hijack the thread with their usual rants.
:cwm10:
 

Jay

Executive Branch Member
Jan 7, 2005
8,366
3
38
We've come to expect nothing less of them Johnny Utah.
 

mabudon

Metal King
Mar 15, 2006
1,339
30
48
Golden Horseshoe, Ontario
hey, ain't no hijack, I just said that it is too bad that we cannot enjoy the same freedom as they have down therer in the US...

And pastafarian, I don't know if you got the jist of my statement, I was sorta cynically referring to "the other side of the Cindy Sheehans" as I would think someone would have to be an outright moron to not be able to understand that it is INTENSELY sad when someone loses a loved one, regardles of circumsytance, and in this instance it seems like the "other side" is glass-eyed adherence to party line...

And as for tasteless, from a lot of things I've been told since I joined this board, I thought that "tasteless" was the way "good points" got made, sorry to offend, I'll get back to my studies now
 

FiveParadox

Governor General
Dec 20, 2005
5,875
43
48
Vancouver, BC
mabudon, show some respect.

There are some threads that need not be partisan, and this is one of them. I would urge you to retract the spiteful, sarcastic comments you have posted, and to either post something with some substance in light of the mood of this thread, or to refrain from clicking the Submit button in the future.

Thank you, Johnny Utah, for this post — it's moving.

On a lighter note, damn my gay stereotypes — easy crier. :cry:
 

cortezzz

Electoral Member
Apr 8, 2006
663
0
16
yes

i hate to say it

but the absolutely---- manipulative nature of it

as if the FEELINGs of anyone of us regarding this soldiers fate had any relevance to the reality of the conflict

the military --- needs these ceremonies

notice how clean the setting-- how orderly
how neat and tiny-- a stricking contrast to the nihilistic inhuman chaos of combat

notice how we must agree with the poster-- for fear of seeming --- inhuman ourselves

the aura----

the mystical aura--- of a dead soldier--- wrapped in a flag

wrap the babies up too
 

aeon

Council Member
Jan 17, 2006
1,348
0
36
Johnny Utah said:
When 2nd Lt. Jim Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport
Final Salute.



Sad.


Too bad dead soldiers doesnt get the same threatments as officers.
 

pastafarian

Electoral Member
Oct 25, 2005
541
0
16
in the belly of the mouse
And pastafarian, I don't know if you got the jist of my statement

I did get it and went with it, because the MSM (Globe and Mail, National Pest) buys into this sick idea that the way to honour the military is with rituals after they're dead, rather than by treating the lives of our soldiers as though they were precious in the first place.

I know what "the other side" meant to the poster who put it up and it's all the MSM in the US talks about.It's BS as far as I'm concerned to get all mushy after someone has died, while cheering for what killed them in the first place.
I also think that it's not a thread hijack: the subject hasn't changed, it's just moved from sentimentality to reason.

The soldiers should be honoured and their sacrifice and that of their families acknowledged however the individual would have wanted. But the bravery of any number of soldiers killed in vain cannot rub off the stench of the unjust wars they're dying to carry out.
 

cortezzz

Electoral Member
Apr 8, 2006
663
0
16
they dont object
if it serves to further their cause---
which is
a never ending tribute
to the never ending dying and killing

should peace and democrasy break out
they would have lost their purpose
which is to cheer from the sidelines
defending the undefendable
forgetting the unforgetable
waving a flag
angry
and proud

flag wrapping the bodies of of those they sent forth to do their dirty work

and watching like--- vultures--- voyeurs-----at the grief caused by the wars they support