Sharing the water of life

I mentioned that on Memorial Day Arlington National Cemetery was the scene of many gatherings of the living and the dead. In many ways they weren’t too different from picnics and barbecues taking place in backyards all around the country. (Except I didn’t notice anyone breaking out the grills.)

However, one group was breaking out something just as good.

Two young men and a young woman were chatting by a row of graves:

Then I noticed that one was anointing several of them from a 750-liter bottle of something, which turned out to be Glenmorangie.

It wasn’t evident to me what the connection between the several graves might be—they all were killed in late 2003 in Iraq, but in separate actions. They ranged in rank from field grade to private.

Charles Buehring was killed on 26 October in an RPG attack on the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad.

Cornell Gilmore died when his Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in Tikrit on 23 October.

John R. Teal died of wounds sustained on 23 October when an IED hit a convoy he was riding in near Baqubah.

Jonathan Falaniko was near the Al Khadra police station on 27 October in Baghdad when an RPG struck, killing him and several others.

As I was passing, the man pouring said, “You’ll be feeling good today, buddy.” And since the aroma of the Glenmorangie spread several rows out, I called back, “Everyone around here’s going to be feeling good today.”

I have to say that, as gestures go, emptying a fifth of fine single-malt whisky over four headstones is as grand as it gets. I’m glad I had the opportunity to share in it, even in an ancillary way.