Beyond Glory: Heroes' Stories

A play about soldier heroes opens in NYC. The National Endowment for the Arts funds a program that leads to a book written by our troops in letters and journals. Wonderland indeed. Daniel Henninger in his WSJ column today writes about Beyond Glory:

One of the chanted mantras of our time is, "But I support the troops." Terrific. Now read "Operation Homecoming" to find out who they are, what they think, feel, want, have learned, won and lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stand in a bookstore and start with chapter five, "This Is Not a Game."

But we're ahead of the story. Jon Peede told Chairman Gioia he'd just seen a pretty amazing play about Medal of Honor recipients that would make a nice fit with "Operation Homecoming." Result: Stephen Lang was able to put the Medal of Honor's reality in front of soldier audiences all over the world -- in Europe, at Pearl Harbor, the DMZ in Korea and of course in the Middle East, memorably aboard the aircraft carrier USS Vinson in the Persian Gulf.

He performed on the Vinson three times in a day, losing 10 pounds. Two shows were done on the flight deck, each time before 500 to 600 sailors. In the evening he did it in a smaller room for about 100 officers. Some wept.

What binds these men, what binds us all, love of freedom, love your neighbor.