Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dog Tags


“Dog tags found around the neck of a casualty, and only those tags found around the neck, stay with the remains at all times.”  
Captain Richard W. Wooley, US Army


He didn’t die on the battlefield though he would have willingly given his life for his country or, more accurately, for his family and friends. They, of course, would have preferred that he lived his life for them.
 
After the accident they found his dog tags in a dresser drawer, under the discharge papers (general: less than honorable but better than dishonorable). Too wounded to make any kind of decision, the mother took it all: the clothing, dishes, record albums, broken figurines, a tattered copy of The Anarchist’s Cookbook.


At the funeral, they draped his coffin with an American flag which they folded afterwards and presented to his mother. She promised to give it to his oldest daughter, someday. And she will, but not yet. For now, the dog tags lay on the shrine she’s made to honor all her lost loved ones.

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