The enduring solitude of combat vets

[bruno]

Speech given last year by my son's French teacher at VMI to the Harvard Business School on Veterans Day last year. My son tells me that BG Farrell is one awesome teacher. I've never met him- wish I had and on my next trip down to VMI I certainly hope to. People often think that professional soldiers are really nothing more than knuckledraggers - but read this and tell me that is the case. From Tom Ricks column in Foreign Policy.

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/03/the_enduring_solitude_of_combat_vets

Retired Army Special Forces Sgt. Maj. Alan Farrell is one of the more interesting people in this country nowadays, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who teaches French at VMI, reviews films and writes poetry. Just your typical sergeant major/brigadier general with a Ph.D. in French and a fistful of other degrees.

This is a speech that he gave to vets at the Harvard Business School last Veterans' Day

..."Your generation, whom us dumbo civilians couldn't keep out of war, will bear the burden of soldier's return... alone. And a fresh duty: to complete the lives of your buddies who didn't make it back, to confect for them a living monument to their memory. Your comfort, such as it is, will come from the knowledge that others of that tiny fraction of the population that fought for us are alone but grappling with the same dilemmas -- often small and immediate, often undignified or humiliating, now and then immense and overwhelming -- by your persistence courting the risk, by your obstinacy clinging to that Hard Way. Some of you will be stronger than others, but even the strong ones will have their darker moments. Where we can join each other if not relieve each other, we secret messengers, is right here in places like this and on occasions like this -- one lousy day of the year, your day, my day, our day, -- in the company of each other and of the flag we served. Not much cheer in that kerugma. But there's the by-God glory."...

 

[larry2013]

thanks for the knowledge - worth the read.