But the presumptive goal of the morticians and their staff is what they call “viewability” — to give the family at least part of their son or daughter back as they remember them. (In the end, the families of about 85 percent of those killed in action are able to hold at least a partial viewing.)
The mortician assigned to Sergeant Montgomery put him back together as best he could. He built a right hand out of gauze and cotton and similarly stuffed the legs of his uniform pants. He paid particular attention to Sergeant Montgomery’s face, which, with the help of the airmen stationed alongside him, he washed and shaved and layered in makeup.
Chaplain Sparks tells a story he heard from one of his fellow chaplains. He was on the floor, watching an airman who was tenderly washing the blood and sand out of a young soldier’s hair. He would later comb it carefully into place, but for now he concentrated on cleaning the dead man’s hair, rinsing it, and washing it again, the water running through it and his fingers and into the sink. The chaplain asked the airman about that, and the airman said, “His mother washed his hair the first time, and I’m washing it for the last time.”
“It’s very intimate,” Sparks said. “Preparing remains is a very intimate thing. This is hands-on.”
It was Micah who noticed that his ring was missing. Joey was a Mason, and the ring was a chunk of steel that he wore on the middle finger of his right hand, a gift from Gail that last Christmas to replace the one that had been cut off him before he deployed, his finger swollen with infection. Now Micah took off his own Mason’s ring, and he leaned down to slip it onto Joey’s right middle finger, over his white glove. That’s when Gail began to shake; the gloved finger folded in on itself, empty but for cotton and carefully rolled strips of gauze.The Things That Carried Him, by Chris Jones.
It’s the time of year when I think about my friends at Dover Port Mortuary, when I think about my friends that have worked there and my friends who have come home through there, the first stop on a long, last journey home.
It’s the time of year for remembering what a lot of families don’t have the privilege of ever forgetting.
Tag: esquire
Reflection by fundraiser: Why Esquire put “The Falling Man” behind a paywall
Esquire ties one of the darkest stories it has ever written, a tale about an unknown man who jumped from the North Tower of the World Trade Center 13 years ago, with another story of weighty importance—the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff by Islamic State. Its goal—to create something positive from both experiences through a paywall, all proceeds from which will go to a scholarship in Foley’s name.
Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man” has been read by nearly 20 million people since we first published it in September 2003. It’s the story behind a single image from September 11th that struck such a raw and terrifying nerve that it was almost immediately banished from public view. It came immediately to mind when photos and video of James Foley’s beheading by ISIS began circling the globe, followed two weeks later by the devastating video of Steven Sotloff’s murder. We wondered whether there was something we could do to honor their courage as journalists. And that’s when we came back to those 20 million readers.
We’ve teamed up with Creatavist and Tinypass on a fundraiser to sell a re-issue of “The Falling Man,” with a new introduction about James Foley. All revenue will go to the James Foley Scholarship Fund at Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication. Our audacious goal is to raise $200,000, enough to cover a full four-year scholarship. We may fail miserably, or we might surprise ourselves. Either way, we hope you’ll help.
For those who don’t have $3.99 to offer, the paywall is optional.
You couldn’t pay me to read Junod’s (breathtaking, horrifying, brilliant, heartbreaking) “The Falling Man” again – there are still moments from it that show up in nightmares that are all too common this time of year – but I will still gladly pay the four bucks to pretend to click past the paywall for this.
Ditto.
Tumblr Exodus 