Yesterday was the 100th birthday of Lee Marvin, who made 21 assaults on Japanese-held islands as a Marine in WWII and won a Best Actor Oscar. Here’s his tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery:
I’ve seen this quite a bit in cemeteries: Guys who no doubt went on to achieve a lot after The War choose to highlight instead that they were enlisted men in the Big One.
Aeschylus likewise chose to recount that he was at the battle of Marathon:
Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian,
who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela;
of his noble prowess the grove of Marathon can speak,
and the long-haired Persian knows it well.
