Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives
By: Jim Sheeler / Narrated By: Mark Deakins
Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
A MUST-Listen for every American…
All right sooo, I already got on m’ soapbox over on my review for Last Flag Flying re: how Iraq was all George W. Bush with his Iraq fixation, and all Dick Cheney with his Halliburton money/oil fixation. I’ll not go into it again, but I will posit that you CAN support the troops withOUT supporting the war. One can pester leadership for money behind service members as they undertake active duty, as they come home, as they are wounded, for their families. One CAN do that.
And believe me when I tell you that you’ll want to do SOMEthing after listening to Final Salute. This is the story of casualty notification for military families, the ominous government vehicle parked just outside, the dreaded knock on the door, the military man upright in full dress, the chaplain by his side. Mostly, we come to know Major Steve Beck as he journeys from one family to the next, wholly unprepared but doing his utmost very best each time: He sees the fallen soldier watching over him, judging how he treats the family.
The people who undertake this position are simply pulled from wherever, and at times, we’re told, notification has been insensitive and sorely lacking in compassion. But Beck struggles to be the person the families need him to be, whether it’s to catch a grieving mother as she crumples to the floor, or it’s to be the punching bag a newly-widowed wife strikes out at. He’s there for it all.
This follows a few of the families, covering the knock at the door, the funerals, and life after loss. Author Jim Sheeler steers clear of politics tho’ he does give voice to the differing views on the war in Iraq. This really comes into play when a civilian airline is used to transport a body and an announcement comes over the loudspeaker: Please stay seated as the escort can make his way off the plane. There are fierce mutterings about the senseless loss; there are equally fierce condemnation that you can’t support the troops without supporting the war. But mostly there is the reality: There is an individual who knows what he is bringing home are shattered dreams and love lost.
There are the children who are left fatherless, the young mother trying to be both mom and dad; there is the young wife whose life was turned around by her husband (And there are the many letters he left behind as he had a bad feeling, but this was his job, and he meant to do it well); there is the young woman who is navigating her pregnancy and a new relationship to her husband’s parents who will never get over their loss; their is the Native American mom who screams: Which one is it? because she has two sons serving. This mom will go on to move close to her son’s grave but will turn around to go back to native grounds, seeking healing from old practices.
Each of them have their views of the Iraq war, of what it means, of what the deaths of their sons/husbands/dads mean. They’ll love George W. Bush for his willingness to sign over 3,000 condolence letters, or they’ll say their son shouldn’t have died to build a country way Over There. Whatever their final beliefs, they are always so very human, their grief so very palpable and forever-lasting. No matter, we should’ve done more as a country, should’ve been asked more. During WWII, the country pulled together, was asked to sacrifice, constantly kept those fighting in mind. But here? It barely made the news cycle after a while, and all we were asked to do was spout: Thank You for Your Service (Which was notably MORE than those coming home from Vietnam were treated to… am I gonna get on a soapbox again…? I’ll move away from this, shall I…?).
Onto Mark Deakins who delivers this somberly, whether he’s Beck contemplating how he’ll approach a new family, or he’s a mother playing with her new grandson: Where’s Daddy, he’s in that picture on the wall. He’s the wives, the husbands in their letters; he’s the mothers bereft of their children; he’s the kids who know Daddy’s in Heaven, yeah yeah yeah, but WHEN is he coming BACK? Deakins delivers a solid performance, and of COURSE he had me in tears a couple of times. It’s all very soul-stirring.
This should be required listening for countries who send their people to war, for presidents, for lawmakers. Memorial Day should mean more to us than sales and promotions. Whether we believe or not, we should always understand:
We’re not the ones doing the heavy lifting. The living, the dying…
The living after unbearable loss.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.