Patterico's Pontifications

5/25/2009

Memorial Day

Filed under: General — Jack Dunphy @ 6:13 pm



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

Despite being a regular HBO watcher, and despite owning three Tivo boxes, I missed the opportunity to see Taking Chance when if first aired back in February. I’m grateful to HBO for their decision to show it again over this Memorial Day weekend. I watched it last night.

Marine PFC Chance Phelps was killed in action outside Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on April 9, 2004. Like every combat casualty, he was escorted home by a member of his own branch of the military. Lt. Col. M.R. Strobl had the honor of being Phelps’s escort, and he described the journey in an essay on which the film was based. “Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday,” Strobl begins the essay. “Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.”

It’s a moving film, deeply respectful of the military in general, the Marines in particular, and Chance Phelps above all. I can’t recommend it more highly.

While preparing to observe Memorial Day, I was clicking around on the L.A. Times’s database of the 536 Californians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can sort them by their branch of service, place of burial, hometown, and what have you, and in looking over the list I happened upon the name of James Blecksmith, a Marine lieutenant killed in Fallujah, Iraq, on December 11, 2004. He is the lone casualty from San Marino, Calif., a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, and a town which, one presumes, does not send many of its sons off to the Marine Corps or any other branch of the military.

I speak of him here not because I knew him or his family. I did not. I merely chanced upon his name and then read the obituary that was published in the L.A. Times. He was a young man brimming with promise, a young man who might have accomplished anything he set his mind to. And in that, he is so emblematic of the 4,987 Americans who have thus far laid down their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am grateful to live in a country that produces such extraordinary men.

A final thought: Today I attended the ceremonies at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, a feature of which was the reading of letters sent home by Americans in combat across the years, from the Civil War to today. Actor Robert Davi read one such letter, very movingly so, but before reading it he made an observation about the industry in which he earns his living. “Nickelodeon,” he said, “had a celebrity-packed Earth Day celebration on television last month. Why doesn’t Nickelodeon have a celebrity-packed Memorial Day celebration?”

Why indeed?

–Jack Dunphy

12 Responses to “Memorial Day”

  1. Excellent post, Mr. Dunphy.

    JD (1b63a2)

  2. […] Jack Dunphy over at Patterico’s has an interesting piece, including this quote from actor Robert […]

    Gazzer’s Gabfest » Left wing ouraged by Obama’s golf round on Memorial Day (b98ad6)

  3. I wrote about J.P. Blecksmith and many other soldiers killed in the line of duty while I was a reporter at the Glendale News-Press. Their stories and backgrounds varied greatly, but I felt honored to pay tribute in a small way by writing about their deaths. Hopefully, they won’t be in vain.

    Darleene (7b4fcb)

  4. Very nice tribute, and I agree Taking Chance is a moving and respectful film. I have it TiVoed and this is a good day to watch it again.

    DRJ (2901e6)

  5. We don’t need an answer to as to why Hollywood is so hateful of American patriotism.

    We just need to see it end.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  6. Thank you, Robert Davi, for your question, which says everything about Nickelodean’s priorities and preferences.

    AD - RtR/OS! (f03f38)

  7. I just found Taking Chance showing again tonight on HBO at 9 p.m. (PST). Thanks for the reminder.

    Ditto SPQR @ 6:57 p.m.

    Dana (aedf1d)

  8. All gave some. Some gave all.

    Wesson (03286d)

  9. I did notification of next of kin and survivor assistance officer in 1971..
    “Taking Chance” got it right.

    Richard Aubrey (2cdee1)

  10. We all would like to think we exemplify the higher end of things. But usually we do not – we (as a country) are more “late night crowd at Wal-Mart” (overweight, ugly, tattoos et al) than the Norman Rockwell images we’d like to think we are. Even worse, the massive percentage of persons who would sneer at the idea that Norman Rockwell had anything of value to say – as an artist. His images showed people trying to do the correct thing, treat each other with dignity and just live their lives.

    My heart broke to read about the San Marino marine and his family. It broke, in part, because they sounded like what I always wanted to be – in the neighborhood I could only gaze at a few miles north of me (but it might as well have been Mars.)

    If my son chose to be as the young leader from San Marino – will I be brave enough let him be who he is? I don’t know. Our country is honored by those whose first thought is what they can give – absent thoughts of compensation or deal.

    Californio (6657ce)

  11. Great and touching post. Thank You

    Dr T (411873)

  12. Nice post, Mr. Dunphy. We reside in a country that spends millions of dollars on ring tones and would rather vote for the latest American Idol than take time out of their lives to remember Memorial Day or promising and exemplary service members that paid their debt to this country with their life. Apathy is palpable and your post is an exception. Thank you!

    Jim Lewis (aa3f50)


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