A call for us to change our course since the 9/11 attacks

By LaVerne Schueller

-----

I was an eyewitness to history on the day that changed our nation forever.

A group of chaplains from the Air Force, Army and Navy, who serve as Command Chaplains in the unified commands, and our enlisted execs, were inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. When terrorist-controlled American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building, we evacuated a medical triage site. Our group became intensely involved with aiding the wounded, loading them into ambulances. When there were no more ambulances, we used whatever civilian vehicles would hold the stretchers.

When all the wounded were moved, we were asked to return through the smoky building to the center courtyard of the Pentagon where another medical triage area was serving casualties from the burning building.

The fire was too intense to retrieve more casualties. So we ministered to fire fighters who could withstand the intense heat for only about 15 minutes at a time. I learned from a firefighter of the implosion of the towers in New York.

We were asked to staff a counseling center the following day. The center was intended for family and friends of people unaccounted for in the Pentagon. What I saw in those two days amid the carnage and destruction was courage, dedication, bravery, selflessness, sacrifice, unity, real love, honor and a host of the best the human spirit has to offer.

I was never so proud to be a part of the military as I was on those two horrendous days.

The course our country has taken in the 10 years since that day is the very antithesis of what I experienced. Our civilian leaders sent our military into two different wars. America is not at war. Our military is at war.

Our leaders could have seized the moment of 9/11 and asked our citizens to sacrifice to fund the war effort. No such sacrifice has ever been asked. We expect sacrifice from our military but the citizenry at large shuns it.

Instead, we get the “cheap grace” patriotism of attaching flags and bumper stickers and magnets to our cars. We are bombarded by blowhard talk-show hosts who have never donned a military uniform in service of their country, yet presume to define patriotism. We have corporations making billions in profits and paying no taxes to support the military from which they benefit.

My military career spanned 26 years with assignments in eight states and three foreign countries. I served at bases large and small. Never once in that span did I meet the son or daughter of a rich man serving in the military. The sons and daughters of the poor and middle class fight and die for us. The very few carry the burden for the many.

Our country is hopelessly polarized. It is time to require a two-year national service from everyone, excepting only the physically and mentally incapacitated. It doesn't necessarily have to be in the military.

Such national service would provide a common ground to perhaps bridge the divide. It would also get everyone involved for the betterment of our country. We would then not have the inverted pyramid of the masses standing on the shoulders and backs of the very few.

And the 9/11 dead will not have died in vain.

Chaplain LaVerne Schueller retired from the Air Force chaplaincy on Jan. 1, 2003, at the grade of colonel. He is retired in Cedar Rapids and does volunteer work in the community. Comments: vern62666@yahoo.com