Battlefield America

Rifle shots cracked through the sunny, unusually warm autumn afternoon in
the 21-gun salute for the fallen naval officer. The lone bugle’s mournful
notes of “Taps” rang both strong and somber through the clear sky as we
stood in silence to honor both the man and his country.

On Nov. 2, nearly eight weeks after his death, Capt. Gerry DeConto was finally put to
rest in Arlington National Cemetery. His grave is within sight of the spot where he was brutally murdered by terrorist thugs on Sept. 11, 2001: All it takes to view his unlikely battlefield from his final resting place is to slightly lift your head and focus your eyes just beyond the trees at the bombed and battered Pentagon. Not since the Civil War have U.S. soldiers been buried beside their battlefields on our own soil. It is a sobering
thought.

It was 22 years ago that my husband graduated from the United States Naval
Academy with Gerry DeConto. As we stood at his graveside along with other
former classmates who had traveled to say farewell, I couldn’t help but
marvel at the mystery that is life, and how everything seems so uncertain.

I thought about the many times Gerry had been at sea, had trained to face
the enemy, had said goodbye and hello to his family over the years. Who
would have ever believed, ever even dreamed, that he would be killed, not at
sea or during a war he had prepared for, but within the borders of our own
country – within the very fortress and safety of the Pentagon?

As I watched his stoic, proud mother receive the impeccably folded U.S. flag
that had been draped over his gray casket, I wondered at the irony of his
death. I’m certain that this mom, this wonderful woman who had raised her
son to be a patriot, had once beamed with pride at the news of his
acceptance to Annapolis. She had probably shed a few tears each time he set
off to sea. She had most likely worried about him during his tours to the
Mediterranean, fearing for his safety. But on Sept. 11, she had no
reason to worry: Her son was on shore tour, safe within the walls of the
Pentagon on duty that fateful morning as the Senior Officer of the Navy
Command Center.

Killed on active military duty in the United States Pentagon. Who would
have believed it possible?

Killed by terrorists fewer than 60 miles from the United States Naval
Academy. Until now, such evil atrocities were only attempted in Tom
Clancy’s thrilling patriotic novels about the struggle between good and
evil.

Yet, a few hours before the burial, there we were, in the majestic and
beautiful chapel of the Naval Academy attending a funeral that not only
honored this brave captain, but also paid tribute to the many civilians who
were obliterated by foreign ruffians in freedom’s very home – in America.

As we stood to hear Rear Adm. Albert Church read a proclamation from the
president of the United States awarding Capt. DeConto the Purple Heart, I
was keenly mindful that standing around me were my own children, painfully
aware that America was no longer a safe haven from dreadful acts of foreign
aggression.

I thought about the many little children, and moms and dads and
husbands and wives, who are suffering over the loss of loved ones because
our cities became the playground of international terrorists. I wondered,
during the moving tribute given this brave captain by his older brother, how
it must feel to lose a family member because terrorism has, for far too
long, been tolerated.

My thoughts drifted to that small, lone democracy in the Middle East – Israel and how her citizens daily endure the brutal, cowardly, evil acts of militant Islamic murderers.

There are those who say America has become the central target of terrorism
because we support Israel, but I believe we have fallen victim because we
haven’t done enough to protect the homeland of God’s chosen ones.

Capt. Gerry DeConto and the hundreds of other military personnel, and
thousands of American civilians died from an evil that our country should
have crushed long ago. The repeated bombings of U.S. embassies, nightclubs and buses in Israel should have been enough to alert our sleeping democracy that the force of Islam’s infernal war would soon be waged here at home.

We waited too long, when we waited until America became the battlefield.