A Little One
On a far corner of this great big base there is a small industrial facility. They put additional armor and make modifications to the various combat vehicle used by units in the area. They also repair damaged vehicles. It is a pretty large setup for they have to modify and repair some pretty large vehicles. It is mostly staffed by civilians. The armor they add to the vehicles has saved many soldiers and the vehicles they repair help maintain the strength of the combat units. They do good work.
I met one of the guys who works there and he allowed me a tour of the area. So I wandered around looking at the buildings, trucks and trailers and I came upon a group of damaged vehicles waiting to be repaired. One of the vehicles had some pretty obvious battle damage. As I looked at it, it was apparent from the nature and configuration of the damage that some of the crew had been at the least very seriously injured if not killed. I thought about that some, walked around looking some more then got on my bike and rode back to my little metal house.
I've been pondering it some more and decided that when I was standing next to that vehicle I had been standing on a national battlefield, just like Gettysburg or Shiloh or Chickamauga; a place where brave men had done their duty and paid a high price for it. A little battlefield but really no different at all from the big ones.
In the next few weeks the guys at the facility will patch the vehicle up and send it back out on the road again. They'll do a good job and you'll never know it had been hit, and God willing it will never be hit again. Which, is as it should be. But for me anyway, for a time on far corner of the big base, there was a little national battle field.
I met one of the guys who works there and he allowed me a tour of the area. So I wandered around looking at the buildings, trucks and trailers and I came upon a group of damaged vehicles waiting to be repaired. One of the vehicles had some pretty obvious battle damage. As I looked at it, it was apparent from the nature and configuration of the damage that some of the crew had been at the least very seriously injured if not killed. I thought about that some, walked around looking some more then got on my bike and rode back to my little metal house.
I've been pondering it some more and decided that when I was standing next to that vehicle I had been standing on a national battlefield, just like Gettysburg or Shiloh or Chickamauga; a place where brave men had done their duty and paid a high price for it. A little battlefield but really no different at all from the big ones.
In the next few weeks the guys at the facility will patch the vehicle up and send it back out on the road again. They'll do a good job and you'll never know it had been hit, and God willing it will never be hit again. Which, is as it should be. But for me anyway, for a time on far corner of the big base, there was a little national battle field.
posted by Carl at 1:44 AM
2 Comments:
It is obvious you love your country and respect the cause. The guy who sees the glass as half empty would look at the same sight and say how much did we pay for that vehicle that is now ----? Which I am sure there were those at Shiloh and Gettysburg that may have said the same thing when viewing the litter left after the battle. It's all a matter of appreciating what is important to your heart.
I dont see your comments so much as loving the country or respecting the cause, rather as loving the character and respecting the honor of those men, whether fighting on big battlefields or little ones. Seems to me that in the larger scheme of things those battle scarred vehicles are little battlefields, but to those men and their familied they are much larger than Gettysburg or Shiloh.
In any event Carl, well said.
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