Yes, I shed a few of both at a Patriot Guard mission this morning for a veteran with no family to claim his remains. Sadness because this poor soul had no one on the entire planet that came forward to collect his remains. Joy because of the incredible honor it was to stand a graveside flag line with my brothers and sisters of the Patriot Guard in his honor in place of family. From the mission notice:
"Patriot Guard and Associates;
Sadly, we have been requested to stand a Flag Line for Mark White, US Navy and who is unfortunately, an unclaimed Veteran with no family.
We do not have any further information on this Hero but we do know there is no family and students from Xavier High School will serve as pallbearers."
Xavier High School is an all boys Catholic institution. Six smartly dressed students in school uniform jackets and ties were there with a male advisor.
Little is known about Mark's service. His DD214 is blank except his E-3 pay grade. A theory was raised that he may have died during basic, but no one really knows.
I showed up in time for the 9:15 staging in the CT State Veterans Cemetery with over 20 fellow P.G.R. members. The Navy Honor Guard and state military rifle team arrived next. The boys from Xavier arrived as well as 10 people from the general public that heard about this burial. We assembled our flag line near the freshly opened grave and were in place when the hearse arrived. There was no clergy to perform religious services. The military rendered honors and the folded flag was presented to one of our P.G.R. members, who then laid it on top of the casket. The funeral director closed out the ceremonies with a very nice prepared speech, and individually thanked the different groups in attendance. The entire proceedings took 18 minutes.
That worked out well for me, because there was a P.G.R. mission in MA with staging at 12:30. I would have time to run home and let the dogs out before heading to Agawam. I arrived early giving me time to down a snack and a good drink of cold water. I always carry ice cold water on my bike in one of these:
I have a Swiss Army cargo strap attached to the inside of the bike's trunk to keep it upright and out of the way. The water stays cold all day long.
The service was scheduled for 2 PM and we were done before 2:30. I made the rounds visiting the 5 family graves that includes my parents and headed towards home and lunch. My usual lunch spot in that area is Chick-Fil-A and I got to try the new Honey Pimento chicken sandwich. I recommend the spicy version. SO GOOD! The rest of the ride home included a gas fill up and was uneventful.