Memorial Day – Final Salute

This day, Memorial Day, is set aside not as a reason for BBQ’s and anticipating summer’s arrival, but rather to remember and honor those brave men and women who have fallen in the line of duty.  Service in our military has been completely voluntary since the Vietnam War ended.  That means all those who have died since then are soldiers who have chosen to go into battle.

“Never leave a Marine behind.” The tradition began in 1775, and continues today via officers like Marine Colonel Steve Beck, whose job it is to notify the families of the loss of a loved one.In a stunning and Pulitzer Prize winning report in the Rocky Mountain News, journalist Jim Sheeler followed Colonel Beck for a year, writing about the experience.  Sheeler’s book, Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, is a continuation of the series.

Here are just some of the photos taken by photojournalist, Todd Heisler, that tell the compelling story of Memorial Day is truly all about.

 Marine Colonel Steve Beck prepares for the final inspection of 2nd Lt. James J. Cathey’s body, only days after notifying Cathey’s wife of the Marine’s death in Iraq. The knock at the door begins a ritual steeped in tradition more than two centuries old; a tradition based on the same tenet: “Never leave a Marine behind.”

 At the first sight of her husband’s flag-draped casket, Katherine Cathey broke into uncontrollable sobs, finding support in the arms of Colonel 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.

 When 2nd Lt. James 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 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.”

The night before the burial of her husband’s body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body 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 reminded her of “Cat,” and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. “I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it,” she said. “I think that’s what he would have wanted.”

 Katherine Cathey pressed her pregnant belly to her husband’s casket, moaning softly. The baby was named James Jeffrey Cathey Jr.

 As his son’s funeral neared, Jeff Cathey’s tears rarely stopped. He often found comfort in the men who shared his son’s uniform. “Someone asked me what I learned from my son,” he said. “He taught me you need more than one friend.”

 Before the burial of James Cathey’s body, his casket was covered with the white gloves of the Marines who carried him, along with sand they brought from the beaches of Iwo Jima, and a single red rose.

The book FINAL SALUTE : A Story of Unfinished Lives is available on Amazon.

As you gather today with family and friends, take a moment to remember those whose sacrifice means that they won’t be with their families, and the families who won’t ever have their loved ones with them again to celebrate.  It is, after all, the least we can do to show our respect and give honor to those who have given “the last full measure of devotion”.

It is because of these unselfish and brave men and women who served that our lives are most certainly richer and more abundant.