The Commanders
June 3rd, 2005 by Admin
America’s military leaders are make great sacrifices for their troops.
By Jim Lacey
Last month over 1,500 family members who have lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan gathered at Arlington National Cemetery at the behest of an organization called Faces of the Fallen, which has assembled dozens of artists to paint portraits of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was the keynote speaker. While his speech managed to strike a few emotional chords, it was what he did after speaking that was remarkable. Hours after his speech concluded General Myers was still standing out in a cold drizzle talking at length to any family member who wanted to have a word with him. As the man ultimately responsible for ordering the missions that resulted in many of these American deaths, this must have been an incredibly hard thing for him to endure. Still, he never hurried a single person and listened as bereaved family members told him about the child, the spouse, or the sibling they had lost.
It would have been an easy matter for General Myers to claim pressing business and escape as soon as his speech concluded. In fact, he could have ordered a subordinate to represent him at the reception and spared himself the pain of meeting these families. Of course, no real leader would do such a thing. Like General Eisenhower, who felt compelled to go visit the paratroops on the eve of D-Day and meet the men who were expecting to take 90 percent losses, General Myers could not send anyone else to do what must be the most difficult part of his job.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
— Jim Lacey is a Washington-based writer focused on international and military issues.
Posted in Military Perspective
General Richard B. Myers, he sounds like a good man. I will visit The Faces of the Fallen thanks for the link.
I got chills reading this. If this is a joke too, you're a turd! LOL! Just kidding. It's nice to know that our husbands' leaders are just as dedicated. I met the General over 1st CAV a couple of months ago and I never met a nicer man. He took time out of his schedule to help my mom help my niece with a school project. It was pretty neat. We walked into his office area, asked to see him and they said he would love to see us but was out of town. Then Paul's unit came home from Iraq and I looked down from the stands and saw the General. So I grabbed him and began talking to him and told him about this school project for my niece in Idaho and how my mom and I tried to see him the other day. Anyway, I ended up calling my mom and he sat and chatted with her for about 10 minutes on my cell phone, agreed to see her the following Monday and help her out any way that he could. Oh, his name is General Chiarelli…if any of you are ever under his command, be thankful. He's an awesome man! And it sounds like General Myers is awesome as well. Would love to meet him one day and shake his hand…maybe talk his ear off! LOL! Thanks for sharing this, Cj.
What an awesome story. The story really said alot about the leaders in our military…I am impressed.
General Myers sounds like a good man…it would have to be heart breaking to hear all the stories of our fallen heroes.
That really does say alot about him as a man.
Teresa