Full honors........

My grandfather's best friend (Jack) passed away of lung cancer last week at the age of 82. Certainly not unexpected since he was a lifelong smoker. He probably did well to even live that long.

He was part of the disappearing population of WWII veterans that we have left. My grandfather met Jack in boot camp where they were training for the invasion of Japan. Both of them were spared the bloody battle that would have occurred had they stormed the beaches in Japan by the dropping of two atomic bombs by President Truman. My grandfather said he would have stormed the beach with nothing but a pistol and a 70 lb. radio backpack for command communications.

Jack found out he had a week or so to live, so he had time to plan his own funeral. He was buried by his request in his Army officer uniform (yes, it still fit). It was like looking back into time to see him in his old uniform. He picked out all the songs at the memorial service.

He also requested full military honors at his graveside service. He was a big gun collector and history buff who was very proud of his service. They had a flag folding ceremony where they presented the flag to the family on behalf of the President and a grateful country. They had a full 21-gun salute and then Taps was played (via recording since there is a shortage of bugle players left in service).

You see and hear about these kinds of ceremonies in places like Arlington and some other national cemeteries, but rarely do you get to see it happen for someone you know. Far too often, this kind of honor/ceremony is bestowed on someone who has tragically been killed far too early in battle. It was nice this weekend to enjoy the full event as an honor to a lifelong servant of our country. Jack would have loved it.