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Full Metal Funeral

Full Metal Funeral


by digby

News of the weird:

When Boomer was lost on the battlefield in Taji, Iraq, his brothers in arms gave him a funeral. The tribute involved a 21-gun salute, and the awarding of both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal. All in recognition, according to a soldier who has worked with Boomer’s comrades, of Boomer’s heroism and of the many lives he had saved on the battlefield.

It was a funeral that was typical in every way but one: Boomer was a machine. He was a MARCbot, an inexpensive robot designed to seek out and disarm explosives. He — Boomer was, apparently, a he — saved soldiers’ lives as he tooled his way into dangerous zones, taking one for the team in the most selfless way possible. The tributes in Taji, be they figurative (the Bronze Star) or more literal (the firearmed salute), recognized all this. “Some people got upset about it,” the soldier recalls of Boomer’s improvised funeral, “but those little bastards can develop a personality, and they save so many lives.”

And some soldiers urinate on corpses of human beings.

I don’t blame these guys for holding this odd funeral. War — especially ridiculous, pointless ones like this one — is irrational in nearly every way. If this makes them feel better, why not?

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