Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives | Jim Sheeler

Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives | Jim Sheeler | The Final Salute

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Final Salute: A St...

	Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives Jim Sheeler Penguin Press HC, The, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler?s unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. ?The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,? said Major Steve Beck.

Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines.

Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine?s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark.

In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize?winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

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The Face of War's Sorrow

Final Salute looks deep into the inner part of grief and sorrow experienced by families affected by the war in Iraq. The numbers of people lost in the war reverberate and ripple through numerous lives both on the battle field and the home front. The thousands of lives lost represent tens of thousands of those who loved them and are affected by their deaths.

The book gives the reader a sense of intense sadness and loss but you don't want to stop reading it the way you don't want to stop listening to a sad song. It touches a nerve which gives a far deeper grasp of and sympathy for those who are directly affected. It helps put a face on the numerous fallen heroes.

Jim Sheeler tells each family's story genuinely and without a hidden agenda. When finished, the reader is left with a strong sense of the tremendous sacrifice given. The story is told from a variety of viewpoints including the wives and children, parents and siblings, fellow soldiers as well as casualty assistance officers who notify and provide support to the families once the news is shared with them.

Included in the book are striking photographs capturing moments throughout the families ordeals which provides an additional element of realness. Sheeler first wrote the stories for a newspaper which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.

Those who make flippant comment about the military would do well to read the deeply personal stories of these families and how the soldiers they loved willing volunteered and served their country. Politicians would also do well to read this book and put a face on the people and families they are sending into battle. If you want an understanding of the impact and loss experienced by countless families as a result of the war, read this book.

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The Final Salute

The most life altering book I have ever read. No one can read this book without being changed forever. A part of the military function that most people do not think about, but it is the part that truly defines all of us. Required reading for all thinking persons.

It's not an ending. It's not a period at the end of their lives. It's a semicolon. The story will continue to be told.

I remember looking out the window as the flight I was on unloaded the flag draped box containing the coffin of a fallen soldier. The young man who had accompanied his fellow soldier qiuetly walked off the plane, stopping only for a hug from a fellow passenger. I was stunned by this visual reminder of the battles fought half a world away. Not a sound was heard in the previously harried cabin, cell phones were quieted, voices hushed, tears shed as we gathered around the windows and watched as a solemn honor guard assist the transfer into the awaiting hearse and then leave for an unknown funeral home. At that moment we were joined in reverence.

During the first part of the hostilities in the Middle East the bodies of dead soldiers were often shipped back to their hometowns in the bellies of commercial airliners. Accompanied by a fellow soldier all the way to the funeral home, and often watched over by a guard detail until the services. Eventually the military arranged for the dead to be flown in the holds of chartered planes.

Final Salute A Story of Unfinished Lives follows casualty assistance officer Major Steve Beck as he notifies the families of Marines who have been killed in Iraq. From the first moments, the major and his associate receive notice that a family must be contacted to the funeral and beyond Major Beck and others like him assist the family of the fallen through the funeral planning, the logistics of shipping the body home, the insurance questions, retrieval of personal effects left in Iraq.....countless things that can overwhelm and mystify. More important, by spending time and making personal contact with families the major is acknowledging the debt the country owes to these men and women and their families. With the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan the will be continued need for men and women of Major Beck's committment.

Jim Sheeler has written a book that will cause the reader to stop and wipe away tears and regain composure again and again. He doesn't allow himself to drift into the maudlin and never looses sight of the reason he began to craft the stories of the fallen for The Rocky Mountain News. He opens a window into the lives of families that have opened their doors to find casualty officers on their doorsteps. Fellow Marines standing guard by the coffin of a fallen comrade as his wife sleeps on the floor in a bed they have improvised in order to honor her request to" sleep by his side for one last night". The Lakota tribe in the Black Hills holding a wake to assist the spirit of the fallen into the afterlife. The cemetary worker, himself a vetern, who tends to the graves of the fallen. Their stories are different but they are forever linked by their loss. The humanity of these families are forever etched on the reader's memory and I suspect many will want to know how Doyla Lundstrom, Rick and Debra Anderson are doing, how Carson, Dakota and Melissa Givens and Caroline and little Jimmy Cathey are doing as time passes. No matter how the reader may feel about the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan , this book serves as a reminder that the losses are real and that families are trying to navigate an unknown path.

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Should be mandatory reading for ALL Americans!

It took me two weeks to read this book, not because it is a difficult read but because every page caused me to cry my heart out. Sharing these stories honors all who have served our nation (families included) with the sacrifices they have made. No matter your personal politics this is a book that every American should read. Just make sure you have a box of tissues nearby when you do!

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