Technically, it was a celebration, but the overriding tone at MCI Center yesterday was a somber one, of tapping toes rather than clapping hands, of soft chuckles rather than outright guffaws. There were songs, sure, and marching bands and a gospel singer urging everybody to "get something in your hand and wave it in the air."
But the juxtaposition of "Saturday Night Live's" Darrell Hammond cracking jokes about the Two Donalds -- Trump and Rumsfeld -- switching bodies in a "Freaky Friday twist," and David Letterman, via video, musing about the "Top 10 ways to tell your commanding officer is nuts," with praise from President Bush and solemn missives from dead soldiers from wars come and gone made for a strangely dissonant afternoon of entertainment.
Chris Kepko, Justin Grieve, Clayton Garcia, Kenny Conklin and Brandon Taylor were among those saluted for their military service yesterday at MCI Center. The final song of the evening went out from Bebe Winans to the president and first lady.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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The theme was "Celebrating Freedom and Honoring Service: Saluting Those Who Serve," one of the kickoff inaugural events this week. The intention was to honor those who'd served and are serving in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the war on terrorism, and honor them they did, as roughly 6,000 soldiers joined Bush and the first lady, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Colin Powell for a two-hour-plus tribute to the men and women of the armed forces. The event was hosted by a somber Kelsey Grammer, who apparently chucked the cynical wisecracks for which he is best known on the set.
Things got going with a videotaped greeting from Jay Leno, telling the audience, "This is a chance for us to say thank you," before a quartet of enlisted men and women clad in black T-shirts dashed onstage, singing a not-so-crazy rendition of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" -- minus, of course, Beyonce's bootylicous dance moves. This was a something-for-everyone affair, easy on the controversy (Hammond skipped his famous Cheney impersonation), serving up a little bit of hip-hop-flavored R&B, a little bit of country, a little bit of salsa.
There was the Marine String Duo, violin and bass, playing a tongue-in-cheek version of "Old MacDonald," all mock seriousness as fingers flew up and down the strings before morphing into a military march. At the sound of it, the crowd roared in approval. It was a reserved roar, but a roar nonetheless, at least from the nosebleed section where the press was seated.
Sprinkled throughout, there were letters from dead soldiers, letters from soldiers writing about other soldiers who died, and letters written by soldiers serving in current wars read by the soldiers themselves. Former president George H.W. Bush read a long letter from a soldier who'd parachuted to safety during World War II. Another was from a black soldier fighting in the Civil War, writing home to his enslaved wife and urging her to keep hope alive: "I would like to know if you are still in slavery. If you are, it won't be long. . . . The curse of our land is trampled beneath our feet."
Family members, children grown and growing, brothers, sisters, wives, took to the stage, announcing the names of the loved ones that they'd lost. A young soldier, fresh from Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom, read a letter she'd written home following an ambush: "Special forces teams sat with their dead comrades in triage for hours. It was terrible. . . . This makes eight soldiers' deaths in 10 days."
There was Gloria Estefan, Cuban-born and Miami-bred, minus her normal let's-get-the-party-started energy, singing a quiet, twangy ballad she wrote in honor of her father, who served in the Vietnam War. Black-and-white pictures of him flashed on the big screens onstage.
And there was a bit of pride, too, with filmed segments of each branch of the armed services boasting about their prowess, including the Marine video spot in which the announcer proclaimed that the Marines are "the first to fight. They are a special breed and proud to be different." Country singer Darryl Worley drove the stand-up-and-fight message home with his 2003 anthem "Have You Forgotten."
"Some say this country's just out looking for a fight," he sang. "After 9/11, man, I'd have to say that's right." The crowd cheered.
Grammer read from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address before introducing President Bush, who walked onstage and thanked the men and women in uniform, who made up the majority of the audience.
"We are blessed to live in hopeful times, when the promise of liberty is spreading across the world. In the last four years, more than 50 million people have joined the ranks of the free," he said as they applauded.
"The people of Afghanistan have thrown off an outlaw regime, and chosen a president in the first free elections in that nation's 5,000-year history," he said. "And in coming days, the Iraqi people will have their chance to go to the polls, to begin the process of creating a democratic government that will answer to the people, instead of to a thug and a tyrant."
They clapped and they clapped, basking in the praise of their president.
