Procession - Memorial Day 2012

 

Procession

The pavement passes underneath our feet,

Along with patches and blankets of leaves.

We walk, following Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer,

Carried away from the chapel –
A winding funeral procession.

The colors of the red stripes and blue field of stars,

Always clear to see – always far ahead.

The sounds of the drum cadence, 

The songs the band plays –

Muffled, not much louder than the wind

Blowing through the trees.

The soldier’s wife, at the arm of her escort.

For all the times visiting Arlington,

Never having walked the length of the cemetery,

The peacefulness of the place was palpable.

Emotions changed often, 

As the rising and falling hills and swales. 

To the sides, rows of tombstones,

Walking beside histories

Recorded on white marble.

As if in a dream, ahead are the Stars and Stripes.

An undulating sea of dark blue uniforms, 

Trimmed with red and gold.

Bobbing covered heads, 

Most with short-cropped hair.

Coveted blue shoulder braids – the Infantry –

Many a Tomb Guard Badge fixed to right pockets.

Young men's faces looking straight ahead.

Horses drew the caisson to Section 60 –

The resting places for those who gave their lives 

The last nine years.

Now the Casket Team bears its honor – 

their former commander.

Standing close, shoulder-to-shoulder, 

Many sergeants,

The Old Guard, 

Infantrymen, 

Buglers and drummers,

Young and old, different home towns,

At the grave, showing their last respects,

Giving their support –

All brothers, all soldiers.

Distant observers

Volunteer Patriot Guard Riders in their ranks,

Stand watch at a distance,

Showing respect for fallen heroes,

Shielding grieving families from disruptions,

Some from North Carolina,

Adam's home state.

The flag folded,
Twenty-one gun salute fired,
The sound of the lone bugler's taps faded away,
All the solemn on-lookers have dispersed.
The young widow, now alone.

The widow's escort, still standing watch – 

A two star general,
So high a rank for an enlisted soldier, honored.

Where the living stand among the fallen.

The headstones here blend into the rest,

From all our Nation's wars –

Lines of tombstones in the distance,

Marking 300,000 graves across 600 acres,
But this one acre today is the saddest of all.

They walk away after the ceremonies –

150 marched and walked and rode here together,

Now leave at their own pace,
With their dreams, their memories, their thoughts, their fears, their anxiety,

From the place of remembrance for this generation.

A generation of all volunteers,

Like my sons.

Among the many graves that wait,

William Spates.

A former Tomb Guard, like Adam, 

He was killed in Vietnam.

His headstone stands watch

As the sentinel on the Plaza that hour stands his watch –
Walks the mat –

His honor walk for the Unknowns,

As Spates and Adam did in years past.

_______________________________

Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer was killed in Afghanistan October 28, 2010 - he is remembered this Memorial Day. Above are impressions and photographs recorded from Adam's funeral procession at Arlington National Cemetery, November 17, 2010. Previous links remembering Adam can be found by clicking here, and here. Other Memorial Day postings can be found by clicking here, here, and here.

Others like these soldiers walked and worked and lived with those who are remembered in Section 60. Unlike the Veterans of the Vietnam War, they do not have to wait 20 years to have a place to gather and remember their fallen friends. But just as the names inscribed on the wall pile up above your head as you walk down into the earth at the Vietnam Memorial - here the names on the grave markers expand weekly across the acres of green plains and rolling hills of Arlington, in what is called the Field of Honor.