Esquire's "most gripping story you will read this year."

Finally mustered up enough courage to read this story. Jones - amazing piece of work. Sgt Montgomery and his family will be stuck in my mind for a long long time.

You brought great honor to his death. I was particularly stuck by the folks at Dover and the effort they make to insure that each and every soldier who arrives is treated with honor and great dignity.

I was good on holding back the tears until you wrote about the guy who washed his hair for the last time and thought about his mom washing it with great care the first time.

If you take out the surreal parts of the movie your story made me think of Deer Hunter- in the end less a war movie and more a movie about life and friendships in a small town.

 

I got through it in 90 minutes. Every so often I'd stop and digest what I'd just read. I already wrote Jones a note on what I thought about it, and what I thought it meant and how and why it was written the way it was.

Beautiful piece of work.

 

Boy, talk about a sense of timing. Whether or not you meant to choose now, almost two months after the most recent post, I'd like to thank Boom and Songbird for successfully bumping this thread back onto the front page.

It's pieces like this one that help remind all of us just why we do what we do. And especially now, with so much doom and gloom pervading our industry, and as a result, this board, I think being directed to such works serves as a breath of fresh air and sort of an elixir for the pain we are all feeling about so many of our comrades losing their jobs.

As soon as I picked up on precisely what the story was about, I immediately thought back to the piece John Romano did at the St. Pete Times last year on the death of an American soldier in Iraq who happened to be married to one of his fellow writers at the paper. Though there are a lot of great stories being churned out on a daily basis, it seems like once a year, something extraordinary is published just when we need it most.

And Jones, I know I am only echoing the sentiments of everyone who has posted before me, but if I can be so bold as to use a lousy cliche, you didn't just hit a home run, you crushed one farther than any of the 28 bombs Josh Hamilton launched the other night.

One final complimentary note. I'm willing to bet that it'll feel like it took most of you longer to wade through my verbose post than it did to read Jones' story. That's how well-constructed it was and how easily it flowed.

 

Andy, if you're just finding this thread (and the outstanding story that inspired it), may I suggest some background material: "Stories That Have Broken You".

 

Thanks for the link pseudo. I'll have to pick another day to go through all five pages of that thread because after reading Jones' story and all five pages of this thread, my eyes are like rectangles now. ;D

 

This story by Jones is a must read for anyone in need of a bit of inspiration on this board, so I'd like to see the thread stay up on the front page for a little while if possible.

 

Moddy,

Please accept my humblest apologies. I just hadn't seen this thread until yesterday when Boom and Songbird became the first to post a comment since May 21st, and I got caught up in the quality of Jones' story and now its relevance to the other Esquire thread about David Vann's lede as well as the thread's ability to serve as a reminder that there is good journalism still being practiced.

I will leave it be if it falls off the front page. Thanks for being kind in your delivery.

 

True that. (I always wanted to say that)

 

Not much of a surprise:

44th Annual National Magazine Awards Winners Announced

FEATURE WRITING
This category recognizes excellence in feature writing. It honors the stylishness and originality with which the author treats his or her subject.

Esquire: David Granger, editor-in-chief, for The Things That Carried Him, by Chris Jones, May

Taking us backward in time from the burial of Sgt. Joe Montgomery to the battlefield on which he fell, Esquire's “The Things That Carried Him” is a heart-rending, virtuoso account of the fate not just of one soldier but ultimately of all those who have lost their lives in Iraq. Esquire has won a total of 22 Ellies including three for Feature Writing.

Well done, sir.

 

wow I was sure that his ESPN " The Things We Forget 2008 " would have been a winner.

Jones is creating a cottage industry on "things".

He needs to share the prize with Tim O'brien.