BRAVE MEN

BRAVE MEN 

By Andy Weddington

03 July 2023

I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without. - Ernie Pyle. 

A few weeks ago a long time friend fifteen years my senior not a veteran sent an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

The death of Captain Henry T. Waskow, U. S. Army.

That day I ordered the book 'Brave Men' written by Ernie Pyle who authored the piece about Captain Waskow.

Mr. Pyle's book is about 500 pages. 

I'm about half-way. 

But soon after beginning realized for not having read 'Brave Men' as a young officer I was ignorantly void a piece of the foundation of leadership. 

There's no do overs. 

Mr. Pyle is a powerful writer. 

Straightforward and simple plain language. 

He describes combat from the perspective of the men who did the dirty work. 

His work exceptional because he was with them. He befriended them. He, though not a combatant, experienced their physical and mental hardships. Exhaustion. Sickness. Brutality.

He cited men by rank, name, and home address. 

That way Ernie Pyle made the abstract of war real - personal.  

He observed front line combatants do not much care for the flag-waving back home. 

Men fight to survive and for their brothers; not the abstracts of country and patriotism.

His descriptions of what Army engineering units in Italy accomplished - as to bridging - to allow forces to attack mind-boggling. 

Men at work. 

I paused a few days to digest.

Friday morning past I visited a transportation museum a couple hours west of our home and sketched trains. 

Old train cars - passenger and freight and flatbeds at rest in the elements - that undoubtedly once carried brave men, rolling stock, and gear across the country.

Simple sketches.

Basic rectangles with the two short faces not with straight top edge.

Later in the day we crossed into another world.

The old National Cemetery on Government Street is surrounded by downtown Salisbury. 

Passing through the gate the visitor is hit in the face with long parallel lines of white headstones. 

As if the unit commander ordered, "Fall in," and the ranks dressed right and covered. 

Flawless. 

The manicured rich green grounds with the stark white lines seemed an athletic field. 

But the ground hallowed. 

There was not noise. 

It was if the hustle and bustle beyond the gate was not authorized to penetrate. 

The terrain rolling so there was an abstract to the array of headstones regardless where standing. 

I sketched headstones; singles, multiples, and from sundry angles. 

An 'aha' moment struck realizing the shape of the headstone was the shape of the train car short face. 

Simple rectangle not with straight top edge.

Somehow that fitting. 

I was not there to visit any particular gravesite though a Marine or two noted.

Not expected was the number of stones marked: UNKOWN U.S. SOLDIER

Lots of them. 

Brave men. 

Identity known but to God.

Saturday night ... fireworks!

Spectacular!

To celebrate freedom.

More so to salute brave men.

A handful of other books written by Ernie Pyle are trickling in. 

They're priority. 

If not familiar with the death of Captain Waskow then correct that - soonest - as every American should read Pyle's moving story. 

And Marines, especially active, get a copy of 'Brave Men' - no other lessons of combat leadership necessary; close combat is not history. 

Tomorrow, remember ...

Courage and brutality are necessary elements for preserving civility.

Toast brave men. For them, freedom.