Veterans Day Address 2007

“HERE’S WHY” 

By Richard J. O'Hare

For Shabbat Service In Observance Of Veterans’ Day 2007   

Shabbat Shalom Everyone!                                

Many of you know that my wife, Ann, and I have a son, Danny, who is a United States Marine. He was sent to Iraq once before, was deployed a second time, and then was due to get out of the Marines last July. But he extended his enlistment and volunteered to go back to Iraq. I thought you might like to know why---why he became a Marine and, even more important, why he volunteered to go back to Iraq.

Danny made these choices because he has a fighting spirit, coupled with a protective spirit. These are qualities you can’t teach someone. He has been this way since he was a little boy.

When Danny was in the JCC Pre School, his teacher told us that he and another boy were fighting. I thought Danny would blame the other boy. But Danny surprised me. He said that they were friends. Eventually, I learned that their friendship was based on fighting. They were equal in fighting spirit. They had been testing each other.

My next story about Danny came to me by way of a boy in Danny’s middle school who was being bullied. Danny told the bully to stop, or he’d have to fight him. The boy Danny protected didn’t even know Danny’s name. He called Danny “the kid with red hair who is the best fighter in the school.” When I heard this, I knew the boy meant Danny. As it turned out, Danny’s fighting words, and his reputation, were enough. The bullying stopped.

Now that you know something about Danny’s childhood, you can understand why he chose the Marines. And you’ll appreciate the next story, which is how Ann and I learned that Danny had volunteered to go back to Iraq. 

One Sunday in October 2006, Ann and I were sitting at the kitchen table. Danny telephoned from Camp Pendleton in California. Ann answered the phone. They talked briefly and then Ann said—like any concerned and devoted mother—“Here! Talk to your father.”

Danny told me his mom wasn’t happy because he’d told her that he’d be going back to Iraq.

“Why are you going back?” I asked, “I thought you were due to get out of the Marines before your unit deployed again.”

“That’s right,” Danny said, “But I extended my enlistment. I’ve been made a fire team leader in my platoon. I lead a team of six Marines. If I don’t go back to Iraq, my Marines will have a team leader without combat experience. If any of them are injured or killed, and I’m not there with them, I’ll blame myself.”

This statement gave me pause, but when I thought about it later, I understood.

In boot camp, Danny looked out for his high school buddy David. The two of them joined the Marines together. Danny used to say: “I always worry about David.”

And after coming back from Iraq in 2004, Danny told me how he looked up to his buddy Schermer. Why? Because Schermer was consistently helpful to his fellow Marines, consistently watching over them.

So Ann and I shouldn’t have been surprised that Danny volunteered to go back. He volunteered because of his Ne-shama Ma-gen-et, his protective spirit, and his Ne-shama Lo-chem-et, his fighting spirit.

And when I think about Ne-shama Ma-gen-et and Ne-shama Lo-chem-et, I’m reminded of the 1923 Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Willa Cather entitled, “One of Ours”.

It’s a character study of a young man growing up and going off to World War I.

And I’m reminded of an interview with the army lieutenant who Willa Cather named as the soldier who inspired her to write the novel.

Like Danny, the lieutenant faced a choice: Whether or not to keep his command and go back to the front lines with his men. He gave the reporter the same reasons Danny gave me for going back. He had combat experience. He didn’t want his men led by someone without it. He would feel responsible for what happened to his men if he were not there with them.

Ne-shama  Ma-gen-et….

Ne-shama Lo-chem-et ….

Willa Cather was proud of her army lieutenant. Her pride shows in the title she chose for her book, “One of Ours.”

We here at Beth Or have the same reasons to be proud, and not just proud of Danny.

Look around this room at the veterans among us. If she were alive today, Willa Cather could write a character study of any of them.

In childhood, each of our veterans set up his or her character. Each worked out his or her sense of justice. Each would wait the first 20 years of life for father or mother to discern the full measure of that character and sense of justice. Each grew up among people like us, who did not know, that this child would show, later in life, such devotion to us. 

So, on this Veterans Day, Ann and I invite the entire Beth Or community to look upon, not just Danny, but each and every one of Beth Or’s veterans as One Of Ours!

In closing, thanks for the Has-ki-venus, prayers and support. And some good news, Danny is again out of Iraq. On Wednesday, November 7, he arrived in California.

Thank you!