Image via Wikipedia
Martin Maher. Tyrone Powers plays Maher in John Ford‘s film, The Long Gray Line. I tend to watch movies in phases – a John Ford phase is in process. I had not heard of this one and added it to the list a while back.
From Ireland, he came. Across the seas to America.
He ended at West Point. He began working at the academy as a waiter. In 1898, he enlisted in the United States Army. He rose to the rank of Master Sergeant. He served until 1928, all the time at West Point.
After his retirement he remained at West Point as a civilian civil servant in the athletic department. When he retired from that position, he had worked at West Point for fifty years.
Fifty years.
For fifty years he watched the fine young men (West Point admitted women only in 1976 – and most of the men were white) enter the academy.
For fifty years he watched the fine young men enter, learn, grow, make mistakes, learn from their mistakes, fail, and try again.
For fifty years he watched the fine young men graduate, leave the academy, and, in some cases, go to war.
And over those fifty years, his heart must have broken often and his tears freely flowed (at least in private) as the names of those fine young men appeared on lists of the wounded, the missing, the maimed, the dead.
I wonder how he stood the heartbreak. I wonder if he ever wondered about his work.
I wonder who will tell the stories of those who give 50 years working to educate, train, and equip peacemakers – Gandhi by Richard Attenborough comes to mind – biographies of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their stories need to be told.
See you along the Trail.
Along the Graybeard Trail 