Kneeling in Fenway Park to the Gods of War

07-11-2014 • truthdig.com

The temple I visited was Boston's Fenway Park. I was inspired to go by reading Andrew Bacevich's thoughtful book "Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country," which opens with a scene at Fenway from July 4, 2011. The Fourth of July worship service that I attended last week—a game between the Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles—was a day late because of a rescheduling caused by Tropical Storm Arthur. When the crowd sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" a gargantuan American flag descended to cover "the Green Monster," the 37-foot, 2-inch-high wall in left field. Patriotic music blasted from loudspeakers. Col. Lester A. Weilacher, commander of the 66th Air Base Group at Massachusetts' Hanscom Air Force Base, wearing a light blue short-sleeved Air Force shirt and dark blue pants, threw the ceremonial first pitch. A line of Air Force personnel stood along the left field wall. The fighter jets—our angels of death—that usually roar over the stadium on the Fourth were absent. But the face of Fernard Frechette, a 93-year-old World War II veteran who was attending, appeared on the 38-by-100-foot Jumbotron above the center-field seats as part of Fenway's "Hats Off to Heroes" program, which honors military veterans or active-duty members at every game. The crowd stood and applauded.