The NYT is random. I have seen this countless times before. Many times I could access an article while others could not. It is how they get information on readers.
It is for this PARTICULAR article that I personally cannot access it.
That's why you NEVER post a link without copying the entire article into your post. It's also a security issue: I can hotlink anything and, by changing one letter, defer you to a gay porn site.
The hot link is VERIFICATION for those that choose to do so. It should never be the body of your post. Quote the article, not the source. Then quote the source of the in-post quote.
Typical Internet etiquette, folks. Get with the program.
Over here we try to conserve the band width but as they say " When in Rome "
Wootton Bassett Journal
An Impromptu Farewell Becomes Britain’s Salute
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Soldiers’ hearses, en route from the Lyneham Royal Air Force Base to a hospital morgue in Oxford, slowly made their way down the main street in Wootton Bassett in March.
By
SARAH LYALL
Published: May 18, 2009
WOOTTON BASSETT, England — It started two years ago, the first time a military hearse carrying the body of a slain British soldier drove through town. An elderly man stood silent and alone by the side of the road, saluting as the coffin went by.
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Dominic Lipinski/Associated Press
Later in the month, veterans saluted a cortege on the street as church bells rang.
The New York Times
The Lyneham Royal Air Force Base is near Wootton Bassett.
“It was a shocking, heart-wrenching experience,” said Sarah Dunn, who is 36 and works at a real estate office here. “Seeing the sight of the coffin actually go past, and seeing the gentleman out there.”
No one ever really discussed it. But the next time a soldier’s hearse drove by on its way from Lyneham Royal Air Force Base to a hospital morgue in Oxford, Miss Dunn, her co-workers and most of the shopkeepers along the street quietly went outside and showed their respect by lining up to watch it pass, too.
They have done it dozens of times since then, part of a growing crowd that now includes local residents, military veterans and others from across the country.
Britain withdrew from Iraq at the end of April, but it still has 8,300 troops in Afghanistan, waging a war few people understand and fewer still support.
The impromptu commemorations in this Wiltshire market town have provided a poignant reminder that, however unpopular and quixotic their mission, soldiers are still fighting, and still dying, for Britain.
Earlier casualties of war were flown to a different air base. Lyneham became the primary site for casualties in 2007, when the hearses began coming through Wootton Bassett.
“I think a lot of other parts of the country aren’t really aware of the war,” said Carol Lacey, who works at a stationery store on the main street.
“They see it on the news or the papers. It’s when you see them actually go past, and you see there are people in those coffins, that it makes you think. It makes you think of their families and the people who are still over there.”
Last Wednesday, the latest coffins came through, four of them, carrying the casualties from attacks the previous Thursday in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. That made 158 dead in all from Afghanistan.
The day was drizzly, dark gray and unseasonably cold, but there were hundreds of people lining the road.
A group of veterans — neat in their uniforms, resplendent with medals — arrived in the morning and took their places near the town’s memorial to the dead from World Wars I and II.
“This is the hub of respect for these soldiers, and we’d like it to spread across the country,” said Ken Fuller, 78, who served as an army paratrooper from 1950 to 1963 and who arrived, head-to-toe in leather, on his motorcycle.
When a soldier is killed and a repatriation, as the return of the body is called, is scheduled, the local branch of the Royal British Legion notifies a list of people it has drawn up. A sign goes up in the town offices.
But that is the extent of it. “There is no ‘You must do this, or you have to stand there,’ ” Anne Bevis, treasurer of the legion’s local branch, said. “We have refrained from the word ‘organization’ because we want it to be impromptu. It’s appropriate for anyone to come along without feeling that they’re intruding.”
Wootton Bassett has become famous for its response to the hearses in a country that seems at times to wish the whole thing would just go away.
At one point, someone proposed renaming the main street “Highway of Heroes” to make it official. The townspeople balked, saying that they were just doing what any decent people would do and that they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves.
Miss Dunn, the real estate agent, said: “It’s a ridiculous idea, because it takes the emphasis off of the soldiers. They’re the ones who are remarkable, not us.”
Pat Mackie, who is 60 and owns a gift shop in town, said “people are doing it unconditionally, not for any other reason.”
One repatriation took place during a bell-ringing practice at the church, and the sound seemed so fitting that now the bells are rung whenever a new hearse reaches the edge of town.
That is what happened at 2:45 p.m. last Wednesday, the four hearses slowly making their way down the main street, the church bells tolling, the huge crowd — shoppers and businessmen and family members of the soldiers and members of the military — lining the street, still and silent.
The hearses carried the coffins of Cpl. Kumar Pun, 31; Sgt. Ben Ross, 34; Rifleman Adrian Sheldon, 25; and Cpl. Sean Binnie, 22.
They halted in front of the war memorial, and the members of the military saluted. A young woman in a row of military police officers, wearing fatigues and a beret, stood tall and immobile as tears poured down her face.
It was only when everyone started moving and talking again, returning to their normal lives, that you realized how extraordinary the silence had been, as if someone had paused a movie and then pressed “play.”
George Brooks, 61, who had served in the Royal Air Force and had traveled down from Bristol, as he always does for repatriations, said that when battalions came home from war they were welcomed and given parades.
“But these lads have nothing,” he said. “This is their parade.”
