I saw a fascinating book this morning on the Today show. It’s called AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Class from Military Service – and How It Hurts Our Country. Quite a long title. It’s co-authored by two educated northeast elites whose husband and son unexpectedly joined the military. It details their ‘conversion’ experience and calls for more upper-class sacrifice in the name of better military policy and a bit more national growing-up. Fortunate Son, indeed. You can read the Today Show’s excerpt of the book at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12990432/.
This issue is meaningful to me as a veteran. I read the 9/11 Commission report and think about military policy differently than I did had I not spent almost 6 years of my life serving our country.
Later this morning we’re going to a Memorial Day observance at a cemetery in Kingsburg. I’ll take some photos and post them if they turn out well. Today I’ll be thinking about Nathan Bruckenthal, the Coast Guardsman who died in Iraq and left his unborn daughter behind. The child is typical of many whose lives bear the marks of military sacrifice. For his entire life, he’s owed the thanks of a grateful nations. Heartfelt though it may be, it’s scant replacement for the father he’ll never meet.