Veterans Day

President Obama with Marti Kirkpatrick
yesterday in Section 60. Photo by Ed.

As you may know, it was Veterans Day in the U.S.A. yesterday.

In other years on this day, we've mentioned Sgt. Scott Kirkpatrick, because his father Ed is a longtime TOP reader. Scott got a special honor yesterday, on what would have been his birthday, had he lived. Ed's wife Marti tells the story:

Today, November 11, Scott would have been 32 years old. As always we went to Arlington to share a wee dram of the Glenfarclas 21 with him and celebrate and honor our boy. We always go early when it is still fairly quiet. A young man approached us at once, identifying himself as a photographer with The Washington Post and asked if he could photograph us and ask about Scott and we said of course, we always (well almost always) like to have any recognition/remembrance of our son. So, some of Scott's story may be in the Post.

The highlight of the day however is pictured above. As they have done so often, President and Mrs. Obama and Vice President and Dr. Biden came to section 60 to honor our loved ones. Ed and I had the great privilege to shake hands with, be hugged by and briefly chat with both the President and First Lady. When I told President Obama today was Scott's 32nd birthday he turned to an aid for a split second calling them by name and asked for a coin. It is a challenge coin and has the Presidential Seal on the front, the White House on the back with his number, name and signature. He placed it on Scott’s stone. It's a very special birthday present and unlike everything else folks leave at his stone, this one came home to live with Scott's flag, medals, and family pictures.

It was a nice day, and Scott would have had fun.

—Marti Kirkpatrick

As Marti mentions, she and Ed were pictured on the Post site, drinking a toast to Scott as they do every year.

The Post photographer was Matt McClain, whose work Ed wanted to bring to your attention. Ed says, "We had a really nice chat with him yesterday and I think his work is quite good. He is a freelance photojournalist and his sense of perspective, design and light is very interesting. His shots of us and others made the Post’s online gallery as well as the back page of today's Metro section."

Matt's website is here.

Mike
(Thanks to Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick)

Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Comments

[MIkal W. Grass]

Ed and Marti, thank you. Somehow, someway, and somewhere, I know your son is enjoying that glass of Glenfarclas 21.

Beyond that, I am speechless.

[David]

Wonderful moment in that picture, Ed. Brought a tear to my eyes.

The story is great and much respect and condolences to you and your family.

[Phil Service]

Mike,

What a great, great story. My thanks to you and especially the Kirkpatricks for sharing it with us. Beyond that, I too, am speechless.

[Derek L]

Just as a reminder - Veteran's Day is not Memorial Day, and vice versa. Veterans Day is for honoring living veterans, Memorial Day is set aside for remembering the honored dead - those who fell in the service of the country.

People sometimes seem to forget that.

[Bryce Lee]

Military death, for whatever reason can be devastating, to those remaining. Rembrance Day, Armistace Day or whatever it is called in your country is there to remind us of continued conflicts which require outside services
to either correct or solve the problem, whatever it may be.

One has to be oblivious in not becoming a physical part of the exhibited grief as a the person doingthe
photography.

As long as there conflicts between nations, there shall be casulties be it physical as in death or as survivors with scars...

[Pak-Ming Wan]

That story is so very moving... thanks for sharing.

I remember someone telling me on Sunday: "Hey, it would have been a public holiday today..." to which I cut them off: "It's not just a public holiday, it's Armistice Day!" Probably an innocent slip, but still, lest we forget.

Pak

[Steve]

Peace be with you.

Thank you for sharing. As I get older my heart is touched more often by these events.

[Walter Glover]

The true spirit of the day — and I don't just mean the single malt.

[veryslowwriter]

A lovely story that's very sad at its core. Thank you to the Kirkpatricks and TOP.

[Mike Johnston]

"Veterans Day is for honoring living veterans, Memorial Day is set aside for remembering the honored dead"

Thank you for mentioning that, Derek. Obviously a lot of people don't feel the need to make the distinction too rigorously, but it's a good reminder to be aware of living veterans. (Around these parts, everyone is very mindful of living veterans on Memorial Day, too.)

Mike

[Mark]

Your son is surely in heaven. May God bless him and your family for his service and supreme sacrifice. I'm choked with emotion as I write this.

[Rick D]

I need to remember to not read this blog while chopping onions.

My condolences and best wishes to the Kirkpatricks. Your son will not be forgotten.

Respectfully,

Rick

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

Marti and I are very touched by all your kind thoughts, thank you all very much! It is very hard to describe how it feels to be in the rarefied air of the President and First Lady's company. And what an entourage!

A note about the malt: as mentioned it is a Glenfarclas 21 and the bottle was a gift to us from George Grant the current family owner of the distillery in Ballindalloch, Scotland. He somehow heard of Scott's fondness for Glenfarclas and wanted us to have a bottle that we could share with him on our visits. We only drink that bottle on those visits and as it is getting low, when we traveled to Scotland in the summer of 2011 we purchased a replacement at the distillery after a wonderful tour. I highly recommend it, both the tour and the malt.

Thanks again to all our TOP friends!
Marti and Ed

[PWL]

I was out at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial at the California State Capitol on Veteran's day. I thought there would have been a ceremony there honoring the vets...but nothing. A few vets of that war showed up, but that was all. One vet stood in front of the list of names on the memorial for a long time with his head bowed, and then made the sign of the cross. Likely remembering a buddy--or buddies--long gone. Meanwhile, down the road aways, a parade was on, with all the hoopla...half of which seemed to be businesses advertising their wares...

Seemed a shame, though. Seems to me we treat these guys as heroes and cheer them on when they go off to fight our wars, but when it's all over, we forget about them and their service, and what they went through....

I think Carl Sandberg's poem "Grass" says really all that needs to be said.