The Ostrich Complex

The arrival of our war dead at Dover Air Force Base

I don't watch the news. I will read the newspaper if it is handy. The extent of my knowledge of current affairs usually encompasses whatever bits and pieces my husband brings home and whatever headlines catch my eye on the Internet. Dustin's news is almost always about what is going on in our wars abroad... the push for more grunts, Soldiers and or Marines being held accountable for heinous acts against humanity, what new weapons are being introduced to help "win" this war, death counts. Our conversation about all of the above topics usually inspires some amount of debate. Dustin and I are not Apples and Oranges. We are Bullets and Granola. You can guess who is who.

I saw a headline on the Yahoo homepage that said something like, "Calm and then death in the Pomegranate Grove." I knew it must have been about the war and so I moved on to check my email. A day or so later I read another headline that stated something about the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, being "appalled" at some decision the AP had recently made. That was enough to pique my interest, so I clicked the link and read on. After reading what Gates found so appalling I had to go back to that first headline I had ignored to read the "whole" story.

On August 14, in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, a squad of Marines, Afghan soldiers and an Associated Press reporter, photographer and cameraman entered the village of Dahaneh where sniper fire, mortars and other accoutrements of war had been reported. They were pointed in the direction of the ambush, located in a pomegranate grove, by a man in the village. Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard was the point man. One of his fellow Marines stated he was put in that position because of his determination. Lcpl Bernard was hit by an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) and after being airlifted to Camp Leatherneck, the Marine Corps' forward operating base, became yet another casualty of the U.S.'s war on terror.

The chaos of the moment was caught by AP photographer, Julie Jacobson's, camera. She had been photographing the group of men throughout their day. One of her shots includes Lcpl Bernard patrolling through the village's bazaar less than an hour prior to the fire fight that led to his death. I find that photo more heart wrenching than the one preceding his demise. Jacobson's journal talks of being in the midst of exploding RPG's and an all consuming silence overtaking her. A silence that reminded her of "world peace finally descending upon earth." When the dust cleared and the pandemonium of war returned she continued to snap shots of the devastation in front of and around her.

Later, when the photos had been printed, a few of Bernard's fellow Marines were looking through them with Jacobson and the photo that is causing such a stir presented itself. Jacobson claims they paused but none of the Marines got angry or complained of the inappropriateness of the photo. They understood all too well that the image before them was and is the reality of war. A reality that so many of us here, back home in the United States of America, are so oblivious to.

After Joshua Bernard was laid to rest a reporter from the AP went to the Bernard home and showed Joshua's parents the photos that were going to be released to the media. Joshua's father asked that the photo of his son laying in the dirt, with the bloody remains of his legs, surrounded by two of his fellow Marines who were attempting to help him, not be released. Apparently, at some point after the initial meeting with the AP reporter, Lcpl Bernard's father tried again to prohibit the dispensation of the photo of his son in his last living moments. The AP released the photos. And now people ask if the release is sensationalism or journalism.

This is where I picked up on the story. This is what Robert Gates is appalled by. This is what scores of others across America and throughout the world are debating? The release of a photo. Perhaps we ought to be more focused on the life that was lost, why it was lost, for what purpose and to what end? Lcpl Joshua Bernard entered the Marine Corps of his own free will. He was not forced or coerced from what little I have gathered. He gave his life for a cause I sincerely hope he whole-heartedly believed in. The AP reporters, photographers and cameramen who accompany our troops in wartime are there for a reason. They help to document everything they see so that we might be prepared to report a more true history for our children. All images of war ought to be released, whether they be of a soldier fighting in flip flops and pink "I Love New York" boxers or a young Marine who has been mortally wounded or the arrival of occupied metal "transfer cases" (military lingo for coffins) and the subsequent ceremony at Dover Air Force Base of the "dignified transfer of remains" or the joyous homecoming of men and women who have served their country. The American public, whose tax dollars and sons and daughters and husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and children are paying the price for this country's wars, have the right and obligation to see what war really does.

Saying we know is not enough. I can read about war and talk with people who have been there but I will never really know. Joshua Bernard knows what war is. The men who stood over him and held his head and told him he'd be alright and pleaded that he stay with them know what war is. The boys who come home broken in body and mind know what war is. The once proud Vietnam Vet now turned transient knows what war is. The visibly scarred man missing an arm or an eye or a leg or more who we so easily pass by looking the other way, pretending not to see, knows what war is. You and I do not. We need to look into the face of the atrocities of war so that when our men and women come back broken we actually understand the root of their pain and try to help instead of bury our heads like ostriches in the sand.

Amazingly enough, Dustin had not heard all the hub-bub over the photo. I brought it to his attention and, no big surprise here, we do not agree on whether the photo should have been given to the public. He believes Lcpl Bernard's final moments should be kept private, that the slice of time he shared with the other two Marines in the photo isn't something any of the rest of us need to see. I have reminded him that every photo captures a snippet of time, time that belonged to someone else and someone else's loved one. The beautiful thing about photography is that those moments can be shared with us, no matter how tragic or painful they be. Think back to the photos that have moved you most... are they all of smiling people enjoying themselves? I doubt it.

There is a song by Everlast, once the lead singer of the Irish Rap group House of Pain, that tells of a soldier's letter home to his mother. It is titled "Letters Home from the Garden of Stone." One of the lines makes the statement, "Really I'm trying to do the right thing, I hope my government can say the same." The death of another young man, my husband's reenlistment and stance on wartime photography, and the lyrics of a song all make this debate quite poignant. It goes without saying that we need our military. They fight and live and die for America's freedom. We also need the photographers who are willing to troop along with our men in the thick of things so that they can send back the images that tell the true story. The story of courage, the story of brotherhood, the story of humor and strength in the darkest of situations, and the story of a nation's sacrifice.