It’s a little late in the day but as this is President Bush’s final Veteran’s Day address (excerpts) I felt it was fitting to post it:

McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915. Here is the story of the making of that poem:
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams, and the blood here, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.

As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men — Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans — in the Ypres salient.

It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:

“I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.”

One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lieut. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae’s dressing station, and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.

The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l’Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.

In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe, and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.

A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly. “His face was very tired but calm as we wrote,” Allinson recalled. “He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer’s grave.”

When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read:

“The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene.”

In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915.

Sgt. Nichols at Jack Army has asked if anyone could help get the word out about the American Freedom Foundation Festival. Happy to oblige.

A friend of mine asked me to post about the American Freedom Foundation and all the good work they are doing. This friend volunteers for them and figured that JACK ARMY would be another good way to get the word out. Well, for about twelve dedicated readers and about seven drive-bys…

Anyway, from my friend’s email:

The American Freedom Foundation (www.americanfreedomfoundation.org) is a 501(c)3 public benefit corporation organized to honor veterans of America’s armed forces and raise money and awareness for various veterans’ organizations with special emphasis directed to welfare and educational issues facing those wounded in action, those disabled and families and children of veterans killed in action during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The American Freedom Festival - held Veterans Day Weekend (November 10th, 2007) - is a concert event that features country music performers, actors, athletes, dignitaries and other supporters, joining together to help support and fulfill the mission of the American Freedom Foundation. This year, featured performers include Martina McBride & Darryl Worley. Tickets are going on sale on September 1st, and leading up to the event, I’ll have acess to talent and supporters that are interested in talking to sites about the Festival and the Foundation.

Please take a minute to check out the site and if you will be in or near D.C. on November 10th, maybe a concert?

Oh, should I ask my friend to ask the “talent” or supporters any questions?

What better way to spend a Veterans Day weekend if you can, than with many who have served or are currently serving in the US Armed Forces. Please visit the American Freedom Foundation website and even if you can’t attend the festival, perhaps you could drop a few pennies in their tipjar.