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Recollection appropriate to Memorial Day....
A friend told me of having been at a Thanksgiving dinner, where the diners were mostly older ladies, but included one retired Army colonel who'd served in Korea. The former were making lengthy conversation on topics that males regard as torture, and they eventually got around to "What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?" One described a sunset in detail, several named their grandchildren, etc., etc. Finally, one of them asked the colonel what was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
He replied that at one point in Korea his unit was holding a ridge when the Chinese came on, shouting, in a human wave attack meant to overrun their position by sheer human mass. But his unit had a .50 Browning M-2, and the gunner slowly swept the onrushing attack from side to side. It was just like mowing down grain, the colonel said, except that grain doesn't go flying backward when you cut it. He smiled at the memory, even seemed a bit misty-eyed, as he finished "and that was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen."
The conversation went into a lengthy pause at that point....
13 Comments | Leave a comment
It might even be a true story, but it's still a jerk thing to say at a party.
Sure as hell beats stories about how long someone was in labor or the time consumed during her last bowel movement.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Straightarrow, The colonel may have been talking about the fact that he would live to see another day.
Paul in Texas
That's sweet!
I am quite sure he was Paul. And let's face nothing is prettier than Ma Deuce buying you another day or more of life. That's why I vote with the colonel.
It sure is a great thing that this man and his men survived, but they did so because many other men died. That's how war works, and I understand that. But its not a thing of beauty. Just necessity.
If it's your life, it's beautiful.
and terrible.
It sounds RELIEVING to be in a combat situation and have that kind of overwhelming firepower on your side, but beautiful? War has twisted your mind when you regard mass slaughter as a thing of beauty. It's awful. Those chinese soldiers were drafted into that battle too, they had families at home too. War is hell, not beauty.
sorry KMan, but I disagree with the premise that because war is terrible, and it is, that what saves your life cannot be beautiful to you.
No sane man wants to kill another, no sane man wants to go to war, no sane man sees beauty in the death of another man, but all sane men should see beauty in their own survival.
Anonymous is right. The means of preserving your life in the face of those intent on taking it can be beautiful. An obvious corollary would be the quote from the movie Patton (that apparently the real General never actually uttered):
"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country."
I vote with the Colonel.