I sent this to the squad email, but I thought I'd post it here. We had a lot of trouble making arrangements, the VA must make arrangements for burial in a military cemetery and they will not make any arrangements in advance, they won't even take your paperwork in advance, you have to file after death. He died on the Friday before MLK day, about 2:45PM. Before we could get with the Funeral home, the VA office for these matters closed. There is supposed to be a person who keeps a pager and answers a phone during regular business hours on weekends and holidays, so that no one has to wait two to three days to make their arrangements. They did not answer Saturday or Sunday. My Dad was sick a long time, so we were not surprised, and had been ready, he never wanted to live like that. But it would be terrible for a family who lost a veteran under tragic circumstances.
Anyway, here is my account of the outstanding job the military did with Dad's funeral.
This morning, we went to the Middle Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Pegram
Tennessee. It's a relatively new cemetery, I think it's been open about two
years. They have an octagonal shaped building on top of the hill in the
center of the cemetery, where they hold the graveside services, it has glass
on all 8 sides, so you can see the entire cemetery.
They often have their services scheduled every hour on the hour, and today
was no exception. The same pastor who performed the weddings for my sister
and brother-in-law, and for my wife and me, also spoke at the funeral today.
As a friend of the family, his short service was incredibly moving. There
were three Army soldiers who stood at attention the entire time we were
there before the service, and during the sevice until the military portion
began. More moving than that, there was also another section of the honor
guard that stood at attention outside, in winds of 30MPH, the temperature
was in the low 20s. They NEVER even twitched, I don't think they even
blinked. The wind blew so hard, you could hear the flag popping in the wind,
inside the building.
Once the pastor concluded his part of the service, they performed the
military service to perfection. They truly were incredible. They were silent
and motionless unless they were moving or speaking as part of the ceremony.
(After the ceremony, we got their names, so that we could send a card to the
cemetery to thank each of them personally. The soldier that got us their
names told us she felt it was THEIR honor and THEIR priviledge to perform
the ceremony for him and for us. She was truly moved that we wanted to thank
them.)
An odd thing happened. The door had been opened to our right so that we
could see and hear the honor guard perform their portion of the ceremony
without being exposed to the weather, then one of the soldiers inside went
outside to retrieve 3 fired cases for the flag. He came in and helped fold
the flag, and placed the cases inside. He went back to his side, the other
soldier carried the flag to the third soldier, and moved to that side as
well. The soldiers outside were still standing in that cold wind, perfectly
still, and perfectly silent, at attention. The third soldier then presented
the flag to Mom, and experessed his condolences for her loss, and the
nation's eternal gratitude for his service. As he stood and saluted her, the
door to our right, leading to the soldiers outside, suddenly flew open for a
couple of seconds, long enough for someone to have walked out, and then
closed. There was no wind blowing into the building, but suddenly we felt a
chill.
I have to think it was Dad, going outside to salute those soldiers, and
showing us that he was leaving us for now, not in that Air Force blue
casket, but on his own, free of his suffering, off to find the wind, and be
with God.
Savage
