Until Tuesday (27 page)

Senator Al Franken plays with Tuesday at a party to celebrate his election to Congress, while I look on. The August 3, 2009, celebration was made even more festive by the Senate’s passage of Franken’s first piece of legislation, the Service Dogs for Veterans Act (SDVA), the day before.

Tuesday and I carefully descend the steps to Sunset Park in Brooklyn in early 2009.
(Photo courtesy of Leslie Granda-Hill)

Tuesday and I pose in our caps and gowns on May 18, 2010, the day we graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Tuesday and I walk down a block in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in March 2009.
(Photo courtesy of Leslie Granda-Hill)

Copyright

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1st Lt. Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, a British soldier, was one of the leading poets of World War I. Owen was injured in March 1917 when he “was blown high into the air by a trench mortar, landing in the remains of a fellow officer.” Shortly thereafter, he became trapped for days in an old German dugout. After these two events, Owen was diagnosed with “shell shock” and sent to Scotland for treatment. After returning to the front, Owen led units to storm a number of enemy strong points near the French village of Joncourt. On November 4, 1918, just seven days before the Armistice, he was caught in a German machine-gun attack and killed. For his courage and leadership he was awarded Britain’s Military Cross.

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Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most influential American novelists of the twentieth century, was an infantryman with the 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, during World War II. He was wounded and, on December 19, 1944, he was captured during the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner, he witnessed the firebombing of Dresden. In 1984, he attempted suicide.

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During World War I, Hemingway volunteered to be an ambulance driver in Italy. On July 8, 1918, while stationed at Fossalta di Piave, he was seriously wounded by mortar fire, sustaining shrapnel wounds to both legs. Despite his wounds, Hemingway carried an Italian soldier to safety, for which he received the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor. Afterward, Hemingway spent five days at a field hospital before being transferred to a hospital in Milan for six months. In 1947, he was awarded a Bronze Star for his bravery during World War II. He was recognized for his valor in having been “under fire in combat areas in order to obtain an accurate picture of conditions,” with the commendation that “through his talent of expression, Mr. Hemingway enabled readers to obtain a vivid picture of the difficulties and triumphs of the front-line soldier and his organization in combat.” Ernest Hemingway was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for
The Old Man and the Sea
. On July 2, 1961, he committed suicide.

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Leo Tolstoy, the Russian author of the masterpieces
War and Peace
and
Anna Karenina
, served in an artillery regiment during the Crimean War. At the war’s onset, 2nd Lt. Tolstoy was transferred to the front where his “experiences in battle helped stir his subsequent pacifism and gave him material for realistic depiction of war’s horrors” in his later literary work.

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The name was recently changed to Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities (ECAD).

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FOB Byers was named after Capt. Joshua Byers, a twenty-nine-year-old cavalry officer and the former commander of F Troop, Second Squadron, Third Armored Cavalry Regiment. Capt. Byers was killed by an IED on July 23, 2003, when his convoy was ambushed near the town of Ramadi. While awaiting deployment to Iraq, I had the sacred honor of escorting the body of Capt. Byers from Dover Air Force Base to his home in South Carolina, where he now rests. It was a solemn journey, and one I shall never forget. Capt. Byers was beloved by many.