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Post by conz on Jul 9, 2008 11:20:54 GMT -6
All I want to see is the Regular Army men who directly served with Benteen acting as pallbearers, or even attending, his funeral.
If he has them, he is a respected and valued officer in the U.S. Army. If he doesn't have any, he is a disgrace to the uniform.
Pretty much simple as that...nothing else much matters in this determination, I think.
Clair
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Post by Diane Merkel on Jul 9, 2008 22:32:20 GMT -6
Clair,
My father retired as a Navy Captain fifteen years before his death in San Antonio. The only Navy guys at his funeral were the handful of reservists they were able to lasso together to fold the flag. His Navy friends and fellow retired officers did not attend his service because they all lived at least a thousand miles away. Their non-attendance was not an insult. They respected and valued him during his life, which is all that matters.
Four years at USMA and a few years of service do not make you an expert on all things military. YOU are a disgrace.
Diane
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Post by conz on Jul 10, 2008 7:45:44 GMT -6
I'm sorry you think so, and apologize for any offense.
I can understand if fellow officers are so old they can't attend a comrade's funeral, but in my experience that is an exception rather than the rule, especially among combat veterans that are very close to each other.
I know that at my funeral my closest classmates will be there, as will I at theirs...it is inconceivable to me that this would not be the case.
Is this so hard to understand? Are funerals so casual and unimportant that we actually think fellow veteran Soldiers won't go out of their way to attend, and even want to take part?
I'm afraid I don't really understand your attitude, Diane. I'm sure that if your Dad's Naval buddies could have attended his funeral, they surely would have.
Officers managed to make it to Custer's funeral, eh? I'm not sure poor Reno even had one, though...
Clair The Disgraced Hussar (oh, I guess putting disgrace and Hussar together is superfluous and redundant)
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Post by elisabeth on Jul 10, 2008 8:30:42 GMT -6
It may be worth bearing in mind that a rather large war was going on at the time -- the Spanish-American War. Unlikely that any serving officer could be spared to attend.
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Post by biggordie on Jul 10, 2008 8:53:34 GMT -6
I went to my father's funeral when I was six years old, having no idea as to what was going on. When I was about twenty, my girlfriend's father, whom I had known before I met her [through him] was stricken with a virulent form of lung cancer which quickly spread. I visited him in Veterans' Hospital just once. He and I were quite close. I sat there for about an hour and a half, holding his hand and blubbering like a baby. I never went back.
I did visit the funeral home to hug the family and to commiserate with some of his other friends; but I told everyone that I would not be at the funeral, and I wasn't. I have not attended any funeral since we buried my dad, and I am 69 years of age, and have lost a lot of family and friends.
With reference to Custer's funeral, there were certainly many high-ranking officers there, but how many serving 7th Cavalry officers attended? How about at the Leavenworth re-interments? How about at Keogh's? Cooke's? Weir's?
Those were different times - travel was not so easy as it is now, and serving officers could not always obtain compassionate leave [witness Reno and his wife's death]. It seems to me that trying to "keep score" serves no useful purpose other than to reveal facets of the score-keeper's personality that might be better left unexposed. And even if it could be established with any certainty how many or who attended a specific funeral event, I rather doubt that any meaningful inference could be drawn from that.
Billy Markland posted elsewhere that he got hot reading this thread, and I hardly blame him. Why don't we all just concentrate our energies on something REALLY important, like how many arrows were in whose back, and how deep the slashes were on whose thighs, or whose eyes were popped out.
Gordie
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Post by crzhrs on Jul 10, 2008 9:15:19 GMT -6
I guess the vast majority of people who served in the military and passed away who didn't have a honor guard, uniformed military people in attendance, or a letter from the President are a disgrace.
That includes my father!
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Post by alfuso on Jul 11, 2008 8:58:40 GMT -6
All I want to see is the Regular Army men who directly served with Benteen acting as pallbearers, or even attending, his funeral. If he has them, he is a respected and valued officer in the U.S. Army. If he doesn't have any, he is a disgrace to the uniform. Pretty much simple as that...nothing else much matters in this determination, I think. Clair I recall reading that off post, back home, Benteen's friends tended to be non-military. alfuso
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