Let’s Talk … Honoring Veterans
NextGen’s Arnold Sowell Jr. Reflects on Arlington National Cemetery Incident and Where Our Country Goes from Here
November 25, 2024
Growing up on military bases around the United States and the world, I remember the special sights and sounds of the Veteran’s Day holiday: the sonic boom of fighter jets streaking across clear, blue skies; parade lines of uniformed Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine service members marching in lockstep and full military regalia; the red, white, and blue of thousands of American flags billowing in the wind; military bands marching with brass instruments, drums, and flutes playing our national anthem and Armed Forces fight songs; commanders addressing their troops with words of patriotism and inspiration; and long moments of silence honoring the sacrifices made by the men and women of our nation’s military and their families.
The nostalgia of these times truly warms my heart and only serves to strengthen my appreciation for the sacrifices made by our military service members and their families and my love for the democracy, even with its flaws, that we live in. But as our nation celebrated Veterans Day earlier this month, I found myself deeply troubled by the assaults on our democratic institutions and the ease with which so many can turn a blind eye.
These feelings have been brewing for quite some time but they surfaced in earnest about three months ago, when our country was riveted by news coverage of an incident at Arlington National Cemetery involving the now President-elect and members of his campaign team. Initially, I felt that the story about an altercation with an Arlington staff member represented a simple misunderstanding, particularly given that it occurred at a small remembrance ceremony honoring those who had fallen during the final evacuation of Afghanistan. However, the more accounts I read about the altercation, the Army’s rebuke, the failure of the campaign team to take accountability, as well as the rules governing political activity at Arlington National Cemetery and the unwillingness of the staff member to press charges for fear of violent retribution, the more my anger sparked, frustrations grew, and concerns for our country mounted. I have sat on these feelings for months but the confluence of Veteran’s Day commemorations, the election results, and the anniversaries of my Mother’s (October 29th) and brother’s (November 14th) deaths make it impossible for me now not to comment and openly express my feelings.
I first visited Arlington National Cemetery on a 4th grade field trip to Washington, D.C. I remember walking the meticulously kept grounds with my classmates in awe: seeing row upon row of marble headstones, standing quietly to witness the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and watching the eternal flame at President Kennedy’s gravesite. I would never have imagined that since then, I would visit Arlington dozens of times, often multiple times during the course of a single year. You see, my brother, Michael, an Air Force F-16 pilot who was killed in a training accident is buried there and so is my Mom, the wife of my career Army officer Dad, who waits to be joined by him when he passes away. My Mom and brother are buried about 30 yards apart in Section 60 – the area of Arlington where the incident occurred and where those who have fallen in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have primarily been laid to rest.
At Arlington National Cemetery, I have sobbed uncontrollably, deeply pained by the deaths of my brother and Mother; I have watched hundreds of volunteers fan out across the cemetery grounds placing American flags on the more than 200,000 gravesites; I have heard the clomp of horses hooves pulling caissons and the sound of twenty-one gun salutes; I have felt the whoosh of jets flying overhead in the missing man formation; I have consoled unknown men and women as they shed tears for their loved ones; I have witnessed soldiers, riddled by war wounds and age, agonizingly hobble down row after row to stand in front of the grave of a fallen compatriot; and I have sat just listening to the power of the silence in this most hallowed of places.
Never once during these years of visits have I thought about the political affiliations, religious upbringings, or racial identities of these fallen Americans. What I have thought about during these visits is the sacrifice and courage, as well as the blood shed by these entombed heroes to repel threats to our democracy and protect the American way of life. These men and women fully upheld the oaths they took to defend our country, our freedoms, and their fellow Americans against enemies both foreign and domestic. Moreover, never once during these years of visits, have I seen the men and women who staff Arlington National Cemetery — groundskeepers, traffic control and maintenance personnel, tour guides, security guards, gift shop and visitor center employees, and administrators — exhibit anything but the top notch professionalism befitting the sacredness of their place of work or thought to question their integrity in carrying out their duties.
The outcome of this year’s Presidential election is over and, much to my dismay and disappointment, my preferred candidate did not win. As difficult as it is, I must accept this result.
What I cannot and will not accept, and what we as Americans must never accept, is the denigration of our military as an institution or the undermining of American democratic values. As Americans, we must never stand silent and allow violent attacks on our nation’s Capitol to be defined as peaceful discourse, nor leave unchallenged intentional violations of long-standing rules and codes of conduct against political activities on Arlington’s hallowed grounds.
You see, to do so, to accept and not speak out, discredits the valor of our nation’s fallen heroes, dishonors the tenets of our democracy, and desecrates these indelible words of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Thanks for reading,
Arnold Sowell Jr.
