In good 'Company' with Misfits
BackWhile watching the PBS "Frontline" report a few weeks ago titled "A Company of Soldiers," my family made some observations.
One was from my daughter, who noted that the troops - a mobilized, nine-man squad called the Misfits of Dog Company - though from all over the country and of varying backgrounds and ages, got along very well, compared to similarly constructed groups in so-called "reality" TV shows.
The "Frontline" segment covered, with very little commentary (though still more than necessary), the lives of the Misfits during a violent period last November. Events have carried us some distance since that time.
We all noticed two things that the blurbs from reviews by big-time newspapers, listed on pbs.org, seemed to avoid or ignore. First was the insistent humanity of the soldiers, all the way from the Misfits to the commander of Dog Company, and how that humanity was galvanized by a clear-eyed, square-shouldered certainty among the men that although they would rather be home, they were in Iraq for the right reasons.
But more affecting than that was their unity of purpose, played out in a scene that burned itself into my mind. Just before time to leave on a particularly dangerous patrol - one intended to once and for all deal with insurgents in southern Baghdad - the Misfits gathered for prayer.
They did not kneel. Instead, they stood, laden with battle gear, in a tight group and laid their heads and hands on each other's shoulders in a portrait of interdependence and strength of unity. One prayed, the rest agreed.
While on a patrol, one said, "This is where God wants me to be." Just like that. No long-winded theological musings. No discussion of a "just war" and whether it fit the idea of where he is and what he is doing. And one more thing we could be thankful for: no commentary from the narrator.
Let's pause here to note that no one is a believer because he or she has to be, at least as far as God is concerned. He has no record of strong-arming anyone. Even putting someone in the middle of danger, as the Misfits were, gives us no guarantee he or she will accept a close relationship with him.
So this was more than war on a personal level, and much more than how the big-time reviewers characterized "A Company of Soldiers." They saw the film, as Kay McFadden of the Seattle Times put it - a "vivid, intimate slice of military life during our very nasty war in Iraq."
We could wonder what makes a war "very nasty" as opposed to, say, merely nasty - some other time, perhaps.
"A Company of Soldiers" was a message from the front, from the middle of the battle, to let us know that even though they get rattled, lose friends and let fly with an occasional overripe word under terrifying circumstances, the Misfits and their brothers and sisters in arms have much aid and comfort to send back home to us.
As to whether we are in the right war, you can stir up an opinion to suit your red- or blue-state self. But there is no doubt that freedom is being won and claimed by the people in Iraq, and the right people are there to help them do it.
And the comfort they send us comes dressed for battle and wrapped in prayer.
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