In the article, “The Flags of Our Sons”, author Billy Shore shares an experience he had while traveling U.S. Airways from Boston to Washington. He, along with a handful of other passengers, observed a silver military hearse being removed from the plane. Also present at the unofficial funeral were Senator Kennedy, a Marine honor guard, and the parents of the fallen Marine. At the end of his article Shore recalls, “The disconnect between those who serve and those of us who are beneficiaries of their service has always felt great to me, but never greater than at that moment”[1]. The purpose of this article is to show the significance that the death of a serviceman has on his beneficiaries. The fallen Marine was a stranger to Shore, for he did not even know his name; however his observations and solemn respect were that of a close friend’s funeral. The difference was that his description was not emotional; rather it was dutiful and courteous. Shore is showing his audience that even as parents, to be on the receiving side of the relationship between a Marine and the people he is fighting for is to be on a separate planet. His observations show that even the Marine’s own parents demonstrated a submissive and passionless respect for their lost son. Their emotions could not have been seen through the hard masks they wore in comparison to a prototype hysterical mother bubbling with emotion over the death of a son she saw every day. This connects to the relationship Paul has with his father in All Quiet on the Western Front. His father’s treats him with the iron respect he might use to salute a passing soldier. Paul may be his son, however he is nevertheless disconnected in the way that Billy Shore describes.
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