Good Morning.

We Americans are a curious lot. It has been said of us that we'll give you the shirt off our backs just for the asking...but if provoked, we shall show a wrath like no other.

We've had a long history of wrath; our country born in war, seems to have continued that tradition down through the ages. But we're not going to look at war from our point of view today. Nay...we'll be looking through enemy eyes.


You know I live close to the Battle Road, and indeed I drive on a part of it nearly every day through Lexington Center. In nearby Concord is the crucible of the Revolution; the battle site at the Old North Bridge. On the Concord side of the bridge, you'll find this sight:



That's two British war dead; buried where they fell and accorded full honours to this day. While the re-enactor is undoubtedly an American, it's considered quite an honor to have this role during the summer tourist season.

Further down the Battle Road near Hanscom Field is a lone grave, again a British soldier buried where he fell, with a fresh Union Jack placed on the site every year.

We've just had the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While the story itself may be apocryphal, there is the tale of some Japanese pilots shot down during the attack who were buried without honor the day after. A civilian women brought flowers to the graves, stating only "They were some mother's sons."

After World War II, we entered the Cold War. While there are stories of both sides rescuing sailors and airmen in distress (The Sea has its own rules that take precedence over politics), there's one episode in particular that sticks out.

In 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 sank in the Pacific, relatively close to Hawaii. The United States decided to recover the wreck, and developed an elaborate cover story in order to do so.

When the wreck was finally recovered in 1974...several bodies of Soviet submariners were discovered in the wreck. At the height of the Cold War, these sailors were accorded full military honours in a burial at sea by their adversaries. When the secret video of the event finally made it to the Soviet Ambassador's hands in the US, it is said that he wept over the respect shown.



Which finally brings us to our own War Dead. Longtime readers of this space know the ongoing issues with Arlington National Cemetery. It's been out of the news for a while, so perhaps things are finally being corrected and those responsible are paying the price.

This story broke earlier in the week. We've had a lively debate about it here, and the question has been raised about how civilians are treated in a similar situation. In some brief research this morning, I've discovered that amputated or lost body parts can only be released to a funeral home; otherwise they are incinerated at the hospitals with the rest of the medical waste and sent along to a landfill. So the answer would seem that the practice is in keeping with industry standards....but the severed body parts of our soldiers, sailors, and airmen deserve better, don't you think?

Abraham Lincoln, while standing on the greatest American battlefield of all, stated "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this." While he was speaking for the Union dead at the time, over the ensuing 150 years the honoured dead of all of our Wars have been interred there. Arlington Cemetery maintains the Tomb of the Unknowns, but having been to Gettysburg myself and seeing the sight below...don't you think that a place of honour could be found among the groves of Arlington for a similar monument?