September 2015 Philadelphia Chapter of Pax Christi U.S.A.
A Job for All Americans: Proxy Witness
I recently learned about this job from a service member who performs it. As I listened to the job description I thought every American should hear this story and perform this job. On second thought witnessing the effects of war may not be for everyone. Perhaps it should be reserved just for those who believe war is a necessary evil.
The basic skills required are minimal: the ability to speak, listen, and take a few tape measurements.
When the body of a service member returns from war, it has to be received at the morgue. The family has to be received also. Then all that is required is to explain to the family what has happened to their loved one. You might also have to explain why — possibly a little more complicated. Of course then family members, in their grief, will want to tell you all about what their son, daughter, husband, wife, father or mother was like until he or she was deployed to war. You will then know well someone you have never met.
After listening to everything the family wants to convey, you will be “personally aquainted” with the deceased. Your job is to leave the family behind, and go view the body. Next you have to take measurements of the body. A service member needs a uniform for a proper burial. Uniforms have to be altered to fit bodies that have been altered.
How do you make a uniform for a body with no left leg or right leg or arm? It is probably easier than making one for a body with half a torso missing. What about partial remains? These are questions seldom considered by the average American citizen. But if your job is witnessing in the morgue you have to ask these questions and respond to the answers.
Maybe we citizens should struggle with this basic question — how do I fit a uniform to an altered body? Would that alter our “uniform” view of the need for war against those who would terrorize us? Some of us would be enraged and want more war.
When we watch the funeral ceremonies on television, it is important to be aware of what has gone on before to make the funeral possible. Someone does serve as our “witness.” Most of us have the ability to speak, listen, and take a few tape measurements, but we do not have to witness war and its effects. We are not required to talk about it or even listen. We do not have to personally care for the body of the “fallen.”
P.Kearney
Wars, seemingly endless and repetitive, are not long enough for every person to take his or her turn performing this job even for one day. Regardless, more exposure to what happens in war might make us think more carefully the next time we consider war.
Ironically, not speaking is what happened to the person who actually performs this job. Five years of meeting families, measuring bodies, and examining the trauma led him to not talking to anyone about it in order “to appear strong.” When I first met this person, he was almost unable to speak—only cry, for reasons he did not seem to understand.
Puzzling to him — maybe — but we know why. He has witnessed the unspeakable trauma of wretched dismemberment, disfigurement, and diminishment that none of us has to address. But he has addressed it–as “our witness.”
Ted Beal, MD, a psychiatrist with the Department of the Army is also a member of the Georgetown Medical School faculty.
Ted Beal
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