In 2007, Joseph L. Galloway, a syndicated military correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, wanted to run something special for that year’s Memorial Day column. He appealed to a friend, Lt. Col. Robert Bateman of the U.S. Army, for permission to publish his about a regular Friday ceremony held at the Pentagon at which wounded service personnel are brought in from D.C. area hospitals and feted with a luncheon.
