Services
at the Washington National Cathedral
for the Dedication of the World War II Memorial
Fear,
National Cathedral, Tuesday, 25 May 2004
Fog had settled upon the Ardennes Forest
as Dick Schneider leaned against a tree, his carbine in hand.
An unseasonable thaw was in progress which made snow on the
trees drop like explosive pellets on the wet ground breaking
the night time silence. The word was the Germans were advancing
and only a few hundred meters away he could hear the growl
of a tank. “I’ve never been so scared.”
He said. The Allies would later beat back an ingenious counter
attack of enemy paratroopers dressed like G.I’s some
had even commandeered Jeeps.
Fear. It may seem odd to have a theme dedicated to fear. What
is inspiring about that? If anything we want to rid our lives
of fear. This heightened emotion is meant to be overcome so
that we can sail into the smooth waters of insight and equanimity
isn’t it? Fear and fearful times represent the very
edge of ourselves. When one is fearful our fragile humanity
becomes clear, sharp, and distinct.
John was new on the front and new to his platoon; they were
entering a small village in France and lost contact with one
of their squads. They could hear that they had made enemy
contact. Having a firefight like this was like having one
foot on a dock and another in a boat. It had an awkward and
unsteady feel to it. Soren Kierkegaard wrote of a dread we
all feel in some depth of soul if we are candid with ourselves.
He was talking about the anxiety and precariousness of the
human condition which can set all of us up for intense, frightful
moments. Back in France, John and his men broke all protocols,
stepping directly into the open and dragging his radio man
by his wire with him; there was an uncertainty to his footing.
There was something heavy behind it all and Dread was indeed
the way it felt and he would distinguish this unsteady feeling
underfoot later from different yet still unsteady courageous
ground some months later.
John McCain observes that courage is that “rare moment
of unity between conscience, fear and action when something
deep within us strikes the flint of love, of honor, of duty."
(McCain, p.199) Yet when fear dominates our sense of possibility
collapses. It restricts our vision of what is possible. John
was scampering through a pasture in France and a voice whispered
that he didn't know what he was doing.
Honor? He should have listened more carefully during those
classes in Officer Candidate’s School and not nodded
off or grabbed a smoke. His bluff was being called and, worse,
30 other lives were now at stake. Sharon Salzberg says once
an undefended heart is broken open that suffering can be the
proximate cause of faith. (Salzberg, p.122) In other words,
enough space appears for a glimmer of faith to emerge. As
simple as, “I made a mistake and I won’t again.”
That happened to Pete Salter in the Korean War at the Battle
of Chosin Reservoir. It was Mitchell Red Cloud who held the
enemy at bay by tying himself to a tree to keep upright even
though he was wounded. He bought time and saved Pete. All
the way down the ravine Salter felt he was running scared
and he was ashamed. It was then that he threw himself on top
of a North Korean soldier who was about to shoot his friend.
And that was the way it was, fear giving way to courage. One
minute you were a coward, the next a hero.
The Marines were forced to wade to ashore at Tarawa in the
Western Pacific with Higgins boats stranded on the reef. The
Japanese had dug in for a long struggle.
“(One survivor) described the sensation of helplessness
that came with his walk through 500-700 yards of chest deep
water under dense fire. It was slow going, and the adrenaline
made everything seem slower and farther away. He said he was
literally surrounded by bullets. He felt like he could reach
out and grab hundreds of bullets. ‘Those who were not
hit would always remember how the machine gun bullets hissed
into the water inches to the right, inches to the left.’
He heard a marine moan, ‘Oh God I’m scared. I’ve
never been so scared in my life.’ He seconded the feeling
‘I was so scared as I had never been scared before.’
The closer they got to the beach, the more they were surrounded
by dead and dying marines. One survivor remembered, ‘I
kept as low as possible in the water and tried to pull my
body up inside my helmet…I discovered the rows of marines
along the beach weren’t lying there waiting for orders
to move. They were dead. They were dead all over they appeared
to outnumber the living.’
LTC David M. Shoup met some Marines coming back out from
the beach, “It’s too hard, we’re going back
to the boats.” Shoup ordered them to turn around and
follow him. Sounds heroic doesn’t it? Still, observers
said Shoup’s fingers trembled as he radioed that victory
was “postponed” while he composed and re-composed
his options. He was part of his generation.
Fear as the ultimate definer of our humanity was rejected
by the greatest generation. And here is the subtle interplay
of our themes. To act with faith means not being seduced by
ready replacements, settling, or getting just what we want
so as to bind ourselves to fear and not to hope. (Salzberg,
p.81) Living with fear made for a manner of living which moved
and managed fear.
I think all our patterns of life, particularly our romances,
our attitudes toward objects, our attitudes toward the future,
our attitude toward education, all had to do with the war.
I cannot imagine a day that I spent from the time I was 14
until I 19, that I wasn’t aware of the war for a good
part of the day, and it had an impact on everything that I
chose to do. There was no point at which except being asleep,
that I wasn’t aware of the war because I had a great
number of friends who died.” (Nancy Potter)
Near Garapan, Saipan there is a circle of red blossomed blumeria
trees that sets off a court of honor for those who lost their
lives during Operation Forager, June-July, 1944. That was
the campaign when 5050 Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen
died fighting in "24 days and nights of close and deadly
ground combat" to capture the islands of Saipan and Tinian
On pristine beaches and in soft by-ways deceptively simple
plaques on eroded coral read, "War drew them from their
homeland in the sunlit morning of their youth. Those who did
not come back remain in perpetual springtime, forever young,
and part of us is with them always."
Their perpetual springtime brings us as with all patriots
the renewing freshness of example. They played with fear so
that it would not be fearsome. +gep
O God, give us calm to meet our fears with discerning
hearts and minds. May we accept these moments as a sign of
a loss of you and your certainty. Help us, as in a storm,
to find the break in the clouds of despair embracing that
glimmer of hope and faith in the days of service yet to be.
Amen
References:
The Power of Your Words, Walking with God by Agreeing
with God
by Don Gossett & E.W. Kenyon
© by Kenyon Gospel Publishing Society, Inc.
book available through: www.whitakerhouse.com
ISBN: 0-88368-348-2
Why Courage Matters, The Way to a Braver Life
by John McCain with Mark Salter
Random House
ISBN: 1-4000-6030-3
Faith, Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience
by Sharon Salzberg
Riverhead
Books, Published by the Berkeley Publishing Group, A division
of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN: 1-57322-340-9
Medal of Honor, Profiles of America's Military Heroes from
the Civil War to the Present
by Allen Mikaelian, with commentary by Mike Wallace
Hyperion Books
ISBN: 0-7868-6662-4
Office
of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies