ROLL CALL

It is 6:00 AM and roll call is about to begin across the country. The General in charge remembers the time when they could have all of the roll calls at once. That manner of roll call ended shortly after WWII.

Yes, a lot of brave souls had been lost in that conflict but none to match the numbers that have come forth these days.

One by one as their name is called the new ones reply yes to their name in the roll call book. Still, leaving out those that have long since passed through roll call, it still takes time:

Anderson

Howell

Jones

Marshel

Bell

And so it went as they heard their names and went through the gate before them, all of them wondering about those left behind. Would they remember them?  When they would see them again?

What would happen when they saw those that have come before?

One leans down and catches his dog as he runs for him. He stuck he nose in the dog’s fur and remember how many times he had held him and smelt the same fur right after he had given the dog a bath.

Another reached down and picked up his cat and held him close. The cat looked at him as if to say ‘I know you had to do it when you had me put to sleep and I forgive you.  Had I been allowed to live I would have been miserable.’

Slowly, at first, those that had died before you came to you and hugged you.

There were those in uniform that, even if you had known, you would not recognize as they were just with you for forty five minutes  at the most as they were medevaced to what they hoped would not be their last ride in a Huey.

They were all there, all of your loved ones, all of those you tried to save by the side of some highway, all of them thanking you for giving them a little while longer on earth and those you thought you had failed.

The one thing they all had in common was that you had tried to save them and though you had, on occasion, failed they still welcomed you with open arms.

It is not what you do that makes you a hero. It is what you have managed to do with your life. We are not all perfect, but we all have that sliver of hero in us. Just ask St. Peter.  He will tell you.

© Tina Rice 13 Aug 20083 Aug 2008

Awarded 16 August 2008