Sacred Duty: A Soldier's Tour at Arlington National Cemetery
By: Tom Cotton / Narrated By: Tom Cotton, Jeremy Arthur
Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
Riveting, heartbreaking. And I am a profoundly changed individual after taking this on…
I do a LOT of Military History; I am in awe of Veterans, of their families. I grieve for the dead; what I saw on TV when I was a bitty kid, of Vietnam, of what those fighters endured, seared itself into my brain, became my foundation, the way I looked at the world, saw people, weighed good and bad and found only confusion.
I’ve been VERY OUTSPOKEN here in reviews about being Left-of-Center, but still consider myself a true Patriot; I have been outspoken about the senselessness of war in Iraq; I’ve been pissed off about those on the Right who’ve turned American soil into a political battleground, one where I’m not welcome.
But it ain’t about me… is it?
I’m not doing the heavy lifting. Nobody has come to my door, said I have to go across the globe to fight, to die, to see my best friends killed. I have not lived in fear of the world surrounding me, that at any moment it can erupt into a firefight, an IED going off, a booby-trapped corpse exploding. And yet, I’ve been sooo vocal about what others SHOULD be fighting for. And so I now offer my apologies to those who HAVE been there.
I was wrong—I’d thought you could support the warrior without supporting the war. But I’m sloooowly starting to think that, given men and women fight for cause, comrades, I ain’t the person who should be spouting off about what OTHERS will fight and die for. I support y’all now; I honestly do.
And Tom Cotton is a nutbag from hell.
-SO- I had to get past what-all has been his latest hateful invective to park m’ reservations by m’ side as I took on something soooo near and dear to my heart: Arlington National Cemetery, and The Old Guard specifically. Yeh yeh yeh, expect your Tom Cotton whitewashing of the history of the nation, but actually? When it comes to the heart and soul of Arlington? The man DOES stay above the political rhetoric and gives a truly heartfelt account of a place that, dude, I have SO gotta see before I die.
These people are awesome, and tho’ the histories of a wide variety of aspects of The Old Guard are covered extensively? The absolute standouts are of The Sentinels, the guards for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I’d already listened to The Unknowns, which rather disappointed me as I’d previously listened to On Hallowed Ground by Robert M. Poole which I’ll review later as gosh did THAT audiobook have me sobbing. So while I don’t think Cotton’s stories about how the Unknown Soldier(s) came to be decided and interred are so compelling—Poole having done it so well -and- Cotton having cited Poole in his research—the sheer amount of work to become a Sentinel, the dedication, the sacrifice, the honor these individuals feel to do such work, had me choking back a sob or two. Cotton was there when a Sentinel did his last shift, and nary a dry eye over here, I tell you.
Expect lots and lots of detail that goes into becoming one of The Old Guard, of how so much of their uniforms are measured to be within 1/64th of an inch of perfection. Expect PERFECTION as you settle down to listen to Sacred Duty. These guys want to get it RIGHT, they HAVE to get it right. Whether it’s a Changing of the Guard, or it’s the even more heartbreaking task of transferring the fallen from airplane onto the tarmac and into a waiting vehicle for transportation; whether it’s of being the most visible face for the public to see, or it’s of being the face the grieving family members witness as a folded triangle of flag is handed to a widow, a mother—they KNOW they are serving families, and they KNOW they are serving a fellow soldier.
Tom Cotton delivers the intro and epilogue, and I’m sooo used to him screeching, likening decent hardworking people to Nazis, that I admit to a knee jerking in terror at what he was getting around to saying. Needn’t have had that fear, I’m relieved to say, as his words are of the utmost reverence to this grand regiment; this is ONLY about their history and just how hard they train, their dedication to serving the country, their service even at the Pentagon on 9/11 (Another standout entry). Their honor. Their dignity.
Their emotions as they are well and truly “there” for each other, throughout history. And as we wander into our uncertain futures, we are certain that they will continue to be “there” for each other, for the country.
So I’ve gotta admit that even tho’ the man has a twang (As do I, this being Texas, y’all), I did like his performing his own words just a weeeee bit better than Jeremy Arthur doing the narration for the parts, like, from Beginning aaaaalllll through to the End. Cotton didn’t stint on his emotion, and while Arthur doesn’t either (As in: That Sentinel after his very last walk!), as a man from the military, Cotton just seemed to give the greater weight to his words.
I’ve had a change of heart about the way I voice my opinions; I truly have. And this is a great book, tho’ I DO HIGHLY recommend On Hallowed Ground for those of y’all who, like me, are drawn towards the history of the way we truly honor our fallen, how we keep them in mind. Memorial Day is NOT, SHOULD NOT be about sales and running out to buy the latest plasma TV.
It should be about those who have given everything, who suffered much, felt fear, felt courage, fought for the man or woman beside him/her. It should be about Paying It Forward to the next generation of warriors. It should be a time of contemplation. Just my two cents.
Or heck, that was a whole nickel, wasn’t it?
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