Stephen C. Reich

West Point, 1993

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Kevin Westburg on July 7, 2005:

From Maj Kevin Westburg: It's dark out. Real dark at about 9:30 PM. And windy. Dust is blowing all over the place as we've come to expect here. They've been making announcements about the ceremony every thirty minutes for the last 4 hours or so. We walked out to the flight line through one of the maintenance gates with all the guys from the office. A US Special Forces Troop was already standing on the tarmac playing the bagpipes, and will continue to play them off and on throughout the ceremony. This is the first ceremony where I've seen the piper-don't know if it's unique to the special forces folks or not. Some of our people say it's usually the Brits that play, and that it IS a special forces thing. The edge of the flight line is packed with people who have shown up to show their respect for their fallen comrades. The entire processional route (roughly a mile) is lined with people, at least the parts of the route I've been able to see during the 4 ceremonies I've attended. The funeral "procession" if you will, is 16 Humvees, each carrying the casket of one dead soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine. Each Hummer has one person driving with no passengers. Each casket is draped in Old Glory. It starts out about a mile down the road, just south of the building where I work every day. As you'd probably guess, the procession is slow, especially with 16 vehicles to keep together. The vehicles proceed north up Disney Drive (named for a fallen soldier a couple years ago) to Four Corners (the only 4-way stop on base) and turn right (east) onto the short road that passes by the AF compound, the USO, and the Passenger Terminal, dead-ending at a guard shack at the edge of the flight line. As the procession passes, salutes are rendered by the folks standing on either side of the road as you would expect from all the years of being taught how and when to salute-this is certainly one of the more important and appropriate times to put that ingrained habit to its proper use. At the flight line guard shack, the fleet of Humvees turns left (north) heading up the flight line. The flight line is completely dark except the running lights you can see on the C-17 in the distance, and spotlights near the formation that will carry the caskets into the C-17's cargo hold. The Humvees proceed north on the flight line perimeter road for about a quarter mile, the living soldiers lining the entire distance and paying their respects. At the end of that quarter mile, lined up with the rear of the open gaping cargo hold of the C-17, the Hummers turn right (east) directly towards the C-17 and break into their own formation "flying" to get all 16 vehicles arranged so the formation of pallbearers can get access to the caskets for the long slow walk out to the C-17 through the additional formation of Special Forces folks paying their last respects. My group is standing just off the flight line at the junction where the Humvees make their right turn to line up for the pallbearer formation. We are all at attention and saluting the caskets as they are driven by.all 16 of them. This is the hardest part of the formation for me. My guts are getting churned inside just thinking about the sacrifice these folks made. I'm not too proud to say it.my eyes are completely misted over and I can't see a thing. My eyes sting all the more because of the blowing dust in the area. All I can think about is their families and how this is not how it's supposed to work out. What will their families do? I don't know, but I whispered a prayer for them as I stood there with tears in my eyes, wishing them Godspeed back to their families and closure for their loved ones. I wouldn't call it a bright spot, but at least the 16 families have something coming home to them. Can't imagine what it must be like for folks that don't even get any remains back. Once the Hummers have neatly broken into 2 lines of eight vehicles each (back ends facing a center "alley" that the pallbearer formation will march through with the caskets), they turn off the engines and lights. Now all you see are the running lights of the Globemaster III and the spot lights highlighting the honor guard and pallbearer formation. At this time, the pallbearer formation comes to attention as the honor guard begins their march toward the C-17 through the middle of the special forces squadrons. The pallbearer formation is made up of approximately 100 people-6 pallbearers per casket. They begin to march forward, following the honor guard through the alley between the Humvees, and they come to mark time behind the casket they will be carrying into the plane. The formation comes to a halt and the lead pall bearer does an appropriate facing movement and steps forward to the back of the Humvee and grabs the back of the casket and heaves it towards himself until the other 5 members of the team can get their hands on the casket. This is happening in unison at 15 other Humvees. As the caskets slide off the Hummers, each of the teams does a wheel turn and the entire procession begins the slow burdened walk towards the C-17. As the honor guard and the casket formation work their way towards the special forces formation, the bagpipes begin to play Amazing Grace. The formation of special force troops comes to attention and present arms. The honor guard leads the formation of caskets through the SF troops and peels out of the way at the bottom of the loading ramp for the C-17. The pallbearers continue onto the plane. Once the caskets are on the plane, the pall bearers organize the formation of caskets "just so", all part of a kind of orchestrated movement. Once they are all in place, the loadmaster (discretely out of the way somewhere in the back of the C-17, hits the button to first raise the lower part tailgate and then lower the upper portion of the tailgate to close off the back of the plane. As I've told you in previous emails, there's a sense of finality when the C-17 is finally all closed up with the caskets and the pallbearers inside. The honor guard reverses course and marches back through the SF formation then comes to a halt and cases the flag. At that point, the SF formation is dismissed and the ceremony is officially over. We all turn around and exit the way we came in, through complete darkness and silence. No one says a word. A helluva a way to end the day. http://www.west-point.org/publications/UntilThen.htm Homeward Bound By Marta Keen In the quiet misty morning When the moon has gone to bed, When the sparrows stop their singing And the sky is clear and red, When the summer?s ceased its gleaming, When the corn is past its prime, When adventure?s lost its meaning, I?ll be homeward bound in time. Bind me not to the pasture; Chain me not to the plow. Set me free to find my calling And I?ll return to you somehow. If you find it?s me you?re missing, If you?re hoping I?ll return, To your thoughts I?ll soon be list?ning, In the road I?ll stop and turn. Then the wind will set me racing As my journey nears its end, And the path I?ll be retracing When I?m homeward bound again. Bind me not to pasture; Chain me not to the plow. Set me free to find my calling And I?ll return to you somehow. In the quiet misty morning When the moon has gone to bed, When the sparrows stop their singing, I?ll be homeward bound again.

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