We Stand For Our Veterans for they stood for us

[Shuffler]

They left this world with no family or close friends around to mourn them. Still, they weren't laid to rest alone.

Funeral services were held Thursday in Corpus Christi, Texas, for two Vietnam War vets. When Army veteran Clifford Ray Dudley and Marine Lance Cpl. Dennis Ray Ashley both died recently, no next of kin or family could be found.
So the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery put out a call to the public, seeking people who would attend the funerals, with full military honors, for the two men. An estimated 400 people, all strangers to Dudley and Ashley, showed up to pay tribute.

"We leave no man behind. Never have and we never will," Butch Cone of the Patriot Guard Riders of South Texas told the affiliate KRIS. "As long as there is nobody to honor him, he is one of our brothers, and we're not going to let him go without the proper ceremony and the proper respect."

A group of high school students were there too. They felt like the name of their school -- Veterans Memorial High School --- compelled them to attend.

[Devil 505]

 

[Maverick]

 

[redcatcherb412]

Had the honor recently making sure an old friend received his due.  Had a coroner call me in the middle of the night as my friend had no family, stayed with some other disabled vets in a home they pooled their money for to live close to the VA hospital.  The only thing the roomates could do was tell them about his friend (me) the state I lived in and my name as well as they could remember.  I was able to with the county social service office, the local VA burial benefit office to arrange his remains cremated and be interred in the Veterans Cemetary with honors.  Thank god for entities like the crematory society of Colorado and the county services office footing the bill, he was able to not become a John Doe in an unmarked grave even though it pained me to not be able to travel to his internment.  I have my spot waiting for me in Arlington and try to make sure friends and family know what to do with my old bones when I kick off.

[Shuffler]

Had the honor recently making sure an old friend received his due.  Had a coroner call me in the middle of the night as my friend had no family, stayed with some other disabled vets in a home they pooled their money for to live close to the VA hospital.  The only thing the roomates could do was tell them about his friend (me) the state I lived in and my name as well as they could remember.  I was able to with the county social service office, the local VA burial benefit office to arrange his remains cremated and be interred in the Veterans Cemetary with honors.  Thank god for entities like the crematory society of Colorado and the county services office footing the bill, he was able to not become a John Doe in an unmarked grave even though it pained me to not be able to travel to his internment.  I have my spot waiting for me in Arlington and try to make sure friends and family know what to do with my old bones when I kick off.

Good man