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Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives | 
 enlarge | Author: Jim Sheeler
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $15.93
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 7129
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 159420165X
Dewey Decimal Number: 956.704437
EAN: 9781594201653
ASIN: 159420165X
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080828211842T
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Product Description
Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheelers unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them
They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know, said Major Steve Beck.
Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines.
Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marines name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark.
In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
Great Book! August 29, 2008
I recommend this book! My son is a Marine and it breaks my heart that parents have to have that knock on the door, but the compassion, heart and feelings these Marines have was eye opening! The book was very well written. I have a new found respect for those Marines, because it too breaks thier heart to do their job and they did not volunteer for it. The Marines truly are a brotherhood!
Final Salute - A Former CACO's Review August 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a former Marine Corps Casualty Assistance Officer (CACO) from 1968 to 1970 in Los Angeles, this book was very difficult for me to read as it brought back memories of nearly 40 years ago. During this period of time, it was my duty to notify over 75 families of their loss from combat actions in Vietnam. As the book was read, I could vividly recall the reactions of family members as I spoke with them and the book very accurately presents their wide range of emotions. Through this book, I can clearly recall each and every notification and funeral service during those years. A noted difference between notifications then and now is in the acceptance of the CACO as a family member.
As a young captain making these notifications, my emotions were held in check as I was performing a service for a fellow Marine. Now, as a grandfather of 4 boys, when reading this book, it is not as easy to not become emotionally involved.
I enthusiastically recommend this book.
JMSmith
Captain, USMCR
Casualty Assistance Officer
1st Battalion, 14th Marines, USMCR
Los Angeles, CA
 Sheeler paints a vivid picture August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jim Sheeler, a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for his story on which this book is based. The primary focus is Major Steve Beck, a Marine officer whose duty it is to knock on the door of a soldier's family to give them the unbearable news that their son or husband or brother is dead.
Although Sheeler claims his book has no political agenda, FINAL SALUTE deals with matters that at least a portion of the general public would just as soon ignore, uncomfortable in the face of the reminders of the human cost of our involvement. Sheeler makes no effort to sugarcoat the details of the deaths of these men. Details border on the grotesque, as if he is forcing the readers to keep their eyes open, making it impossible to look away.
There is no question that the Marines, the primary unit of the armed forces represented in FINAL SALUTE, is indeed a band of brothers, and it's quite emotional to read about them breaking down with the task of burying one of their own. This is where Sheeler shines. The attention to detail in how the honor guard carries out their sad duties --- attending to the corpse, throwing unquestionable support to the survivors --- paints a vivid picture.
He also touches on mundane yet practical matters that make the military administration look small and cold-hearted. In one case they question whether a fallen soldier is really the father of a child whose mother is seeking benefits. The "death gratuity" --- recently, finally increased --- still seems a pittance. Even the manner in which the fallen are honored proves inadequate; Beck takes it upon himself to conduct a ceremony of honor to deliver the medals and citations to families that would ordinarily be sent through the mail.
But at the risk of seeming like a curmudgeon, it becomes too much at times. Sheeler jumps back and forth between the families, which becomes confusing and disjunctive (although perhaps he's mimicking the emotions of the families). It is as though he could not make up his mind what format to follow, whether to stay with one soldier at a time, or tell the grisly story in a semi-chronological order. The comments of the family, while completely understandable when speaking about the loneliness of those left behind, the children growing up with fathers, or the small practices they follow to remember, become repetitive after a time. And why is there no mention of the more than 100 women who lost their lives? Is that too taboo a subject for delicate American sensibilities?
Let us agree that there is nothing sadder than a young life snuffed out before its time. The young men and their loved ones profiled in FINAL SALUTE deserve our thanks and respect regardless of what we might think about the war in Iraq.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Service, sacrifice, and loss made visible August 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am grateful to Jim Sheeler and especially to the soldiers and their families whose lives and losses are illuminated in this spare but moving chronicle. Sheeler tells the stories of families and soldiers who have borne a disproportionate burden during the Iraq war years, with a particular focus on the emotional cost to all involved when a soldier's life is lost and the next of kin are notified. Whatever one's feelings about the merits of the war in Iraq, this book is well worth reading for its compelling insights into what soldiers and their families are contributing (and having to suffer) through their remarkable service to our country.
Four thousand, one hundred, and thirty-seven military personnel have died in Iraq. August 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
(p 48) "Imagine an accountant, a plumber, or a lawyer being pulled out of the office at any time and being directed to walk up to a stranger's door, tell them what nobody wants to hear, and then go back to work." Marine Major Steve Beck, casualty assistance calls officer, informed next of kin of their loved ones death in Iraq for two years. (p 9) "They're falling-either literally or figuratively-and you have to catch them." Final Salute is his story. More than that, it's primarily the story of five brave men (out of the thousands of persons who have died serving their country in Iraq): Marine Lance Corporal Kyle W. Burns, Navy Corpsman HM3 Christopher "Doc" Anderson, Marine Second Lieutenant James J. Cathey, Marine Corporal Brett Lee Lundstrom and Army Private First Class Jesse A. Givens, their lives, their deaths and the families they left behind. Each section of the book: The Knock; Reverberations; Bringing Them Home; and After the War, Stories, covers a different aspect of the process. It's often exceedingly sad (have tissues handy). The photos alone may bring you to tears. Author Jim Sheeler, who won a Pulitzer Prize for a Rocky Mountain News newspaper article of the same name (one wonders if that might have been a better format), follows Major Beck's interactions with the family members from the time he knocks on the door to inform the next of kin, "Please tell me it's not Jimmy. Please tell me it's not my son," until he can no longer be of service to them and a lot of the time in between. The best parts of the book are quotes of folks from all walks of life that he comes in contact with:
Iraq Veteran Sergeant Andrew "Andy" Alonzo, setter of headstones at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado, "I wanted to tell her [the mother of Staff Sergeant Holder as she left his grave], `You don't have to worry. We'll take care of him now.'" (p 48)
Army Private First Class Jesse A. Givens, in a letter written to his son in case of his death, "Take in every breath like it's your first." (p 51)
Marine Staff Sergeant Kevin Thomas, who stands guards over the caskets of his fallen comrades, "You always hear these statements like `Freedom isn't free.' You hear the president talking about all these people making sacrifices...But you never really know until you carry one of them in the casket..." (p 77)
Sergeant Gregory Edwards, whose life was saved by Navy Corpsman HM3 Christopher "Doc" Anderson, but lost both legs and the use of one hand, "I lost my legs, not for this country, but for the country of Iraq, so their children will be able to run around just like mine...If time was turned back, I'd do it all over again." (p 188)
Katherine Cathey, widow of Marine Second Lieutenant James J. Cathey, "It seems like they're just using our guys as guinea pigs...There are these IEDs all over Iraq, and they're sending out guys in to find them-to find them by getting blown up." (p 232)
Sam Holder, Senior, father of Marine Staff Sergeant Theodore Same Holder II (killed in Iraq), "You look at the war and it only touches a few of us. It doesn't touch the majority of the American people...What always bothered me was how disproportionately the whole war has affected people in the U.S." (p 238)
Melissa Givens, widow of Army Private First Class Jesse A. Givens, "The war sucks, but as a country we made a decision to go in there, and we have to support them." (p 251)
Final Salute is an important, powerful book. My primary complaint about it is that due to format (moving between families at different points in time) it has a bit of a choppy feel. It is also repetitive at times, probably the author's attempt to reacquaint the reader with a given family member when reintroduced. Also good: Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and their Families edited by Andrew Carroll, and Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 by Thomas E. Ricks.
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