The original photo touched me. This is after the fight and the bodies are ready to be shipped home. Imagine having to tie the mouths shut. I've seen hands tied together. The senselessness of wasting such young bodies is war. Why his boots were used as a pillow remains a question. Maybe, he was the darling of the regiment and nobody wanted to desecrate him, or maybe his boots meant a lot to him. I did take a liberty with the death scene by making him hold hands with his best buddy. Men have died protecting their friends. I hope they travel beyong the great divide together.
I have a mini museum of mannequins dressed in military uniforms. 2 of them represent a ww2 Marine and his best friend. Many a story of the love between them was told to me by John, one of the two. His ashes are in the breast pocket . If you are interested, I'll post a photo. Mind you, the love I am speaking was not a physical love, but the love one soldier has for another.
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He's buried somewhere, but better still, is to have your service memorialized in a public statue.I haven't seen much of this lately.Public plaques with names seem to have taken the place of the manly soldierly form. What was it about WWI that inspired such tribute to the nation's heroes? Have the real heroes been replaced with something else?
