Book Review: Final Salute

Hey all. It's random book report time. I just finished this book called 'Final Salute' and I want to write about it before my mind moves on to the next thing. Jim Sheeler, a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, followed a Marine Corps 'casualty notification office' for one year as he went about the delicate duty of delivering the news of Iraq War casualties to wives and parents. Sheeler tells the stories of five Marines, each killed in Iraq. He takes readers through the Corps' process when a soldier is killed, from the moment of death until long after the burial.

Obviously, this is a crushingly sad book, one that has caused me to reflect on the true cost of these nearly decade long wars. I teared up repeatedly at the heart wrenching accounts of young wives - several of them pregnant - distraught and inconsolable at the news of their husbands' deaths. As sad as these moments are, it was just as inspiring to learn about how the Marines care for their dead, escorting them home from the field, never leaving the casket's side until the last shovelful of dirt has been laid on the grave. Once the burials are over, 'Final Salute' details the various ways that families deal with their grief. Some try to forget, some try to remember. One of the most interesting was the tradition of a South Dakota Indian tribe, who mourn for a full year before releasing their loved one's spirit to dwell with its ancestors.

Sheeler clearly had no agenda. He sought only to tell the story, without political overtones. I truly detected no desire on the author's part to convince readers to support or oppose the war. His motive for writing was to help readers - who, admittedly, remain wholly untouched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - to remember our dead.

Bottom Line:

Read this book if: The closing scene in 'The Grapes of Wrath' made you grateful for what you have.

Don't read this book if: The closing scene in 'The Grapes of Wrath' put you in a month long depressive funk.