A Touching Salute

Sheeler honors the Marines, fallen soldiers and their families through quiet moments.

My first encounter with Jim Sheeler’s story, “The Final Salute,” came not from the written story but from the award-winning photographs that ran with the story. I don’t recall where or when I saw the photo story, but the pictures certainly made an impression on me. They showed caskets and family members, poignantly demonstrating a young widow’s grief after losing her husband in the Iraq War. I remember them even now, a few years after having first encountered the photographs. The images of Katherine Cathey rubbing her swollen belly on her husband’s coffin and keeping vigil at the mortuary during her last night with him have been etched in my mind. When I began to read “The Final Salute,” then, I was skeptical that Sheeler could tell the story as movingly as the pictures had. Fortunately, I will remember this story now as much—if not more—for its words as for the photographs.

The primary method by which Sheeler produced such a memorable piece is through telling the story in a respectful and intimate manner. Sheeler easily could have made this an exposé on the ways in which the military fails grieving families, highlighting funerals that haven’t been paid for or tactless ways in which they are informed about their loved one’s death. While Sheeler mentions these, he certainly does not focus on them. The focus of the piece is instead the emotional process of Steve Beck and the families he encounters. Again, Sheeler could have exposed their tribulations by bluntly describing their sorrow. Instead, however, he creates quiet, touching moments that display the families’ grief while hinting that life goes on. While the Burnses are going through Kyle’s belongings, for instance, we see their happy memories as well as their sadness. Sheeler treats Beck the same way, juxtaposing his love for his wife and children with the desolation he shares with the families. Through these poignant moments that—rather than expose grief—allow us to experience it with the families, Sheeler brings us into this story to create a connection between readers, Beck and grieving military families.

Today, we continually debate and doubt the current battles being fought by the United States military, and we often look at the armed forces through the lenses of controversial policies and scandals overseas. In the middle of this turmoil, Jim Sheeler has written "The Final Salute," weaving a moving and memorable story that allows us to escape the controversy and see some of the real people involved in these conflicts. By focusing on the support and brotherhood of the Marines and their families, Sheeler challenges us to look at the military through new eyes and, if nothing else, to remember the true sacrifices made daily for the rest of America.