Something in my voice must have reached him. Because slowly, Staff Sergeant Reese turned around.
And he read it.
“We Carry Our Own.”
That’s the battalion motto. Every soldier in that unit learns it on his first day.
“Keep going,” I said.
Underneath the motto, in smaller blue letters, there was a second line. Most soldiers never bother to read it. It’s just part of the wall. Like a fire extinguisher. Like the clock.
He read it slowly. I watched his lips move.
“This dining facility is dedicated to First Lieutenant Quinn Hollis, Army Nurse Corps, who carried forty-one of ours home. May 1969.”
He stopped.
He stood there with his back to me for a long time.
Then, very slowly, Staff Sergeant Reese turned around and looked down at the woman in the gray coat.
“Ma’am,” he said. His voice had gone small. “What did you say your name was?”
