The Rocky Mountain News has a brilliant and incredibly moving
flash video about fallen Marines and the camaraderie and love shown by their brothers in arms. It documents the work of Marine Corps Major Steve Beck, who notifies families of the deaths of their loved ones, and comforts family members. The
print version of Final Salute won the Pulitzer prize.
In the photo above, the Major spread a blanket and stood sentry, so a Marine's wife could spend her last night with her husband, sleeping next to his casket.
Last week, the author, photographer, editor, and Major Beck were invited to the University of Kansas School of Journalism, where author Jim Sheeler read aloud from the article to a sobbing audience. Here is how it begins:
Inside a limousine parked on the airport tarmac, Katherine Cathey looked out at the clear night sky and felt a kick.
"He's moving," she said. "Come feel him. He's moving."
Her two best friends leaned forward on the soft leather seats and put their hands on her stomach.
"I felt it," one of them said. "I felt it."
Outside, the whine of jet engines swelled.
"Oh, sweetie," her friend said. "I think this is his plane."
As the three young women peered through the tinted windows, Katherine squeezed a set of dog tags stamped with the same name as her unborn son:
James J. Cathey.
"He wasn't supposed to come home this way," she said, tightening her grip on the tags, which were linked by a necklace to her husband's wedding ring.
The women looked through the back window. Then the 23-year-old placed her hand on her pregnant belly.
"Everything that made me happy is on that plane," she said.
Major Beck convinced the journalists that the story couldn't just be written in a few weeks, and ultimately, they spent a year on the project. Even though the resulting article was tasteful and moving, the Major received flack from his chain of command for granting so much access. But he trusted the writer and photographer to tell the story.
The two journalists have continued to follow the families they profiled -- including documenting the birth of a child whose Marine father had died in Iraq -- and invited the families to the newsroom on the day the Pulitzer Prizes were announced. The families spoke after the Pulitzer victory was announced and brought most in the newsroom to tears, Temple said.