A Soldier Comes Home
The magnificent and moving "The Things That Carried Him" by Chris Jones in the May issue of Esquire narrates the nine-day journey that Sgt. Joe Montgomery's body took between his death in Iraq and his burial in an Indiana cemetery. Moving backward through time, Jones describes how Montgomery's death touches the people who encounter him on his final trip home: his family, his Army buddies, the funeral director's son who digs his grave, the soldier who plays "Taps" at his burial. Here Jones describes the long procession to Montgomery's home town after his body arrives at the nearest airport:
Now they pulled onto the I-65, this great long string of mourners and their memories. They were surprised to see every overpass -- U. S. 31, Commiskey Pike, the 250 to Uniontown, 600 South -- lined with flags and signs welcoming Joey home. Volunteer fire departments, dressed in full uniform, stood at attention in front of their shining trucks. Farmers drove across their fields of baby corn and soy to reach the shoulder and stood in the beds of their old pickup trucks. As reports of the procession spread -- traffic helicopters joined in, flying overhead -- and long-haul truckers shared the news over their radios, they pulled over and climbed out of their rigs, and cars filled with families did, too, all of them standing and saluting from across the grassy median, the northbound lanes stopped nearly as completely as the southbound.
Jones uses a tremendous amount of reporting to capture the details that make us feel like we are at these scenes with him. www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him