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Thoughts at a funeral for a stranger
Funny thing about that, Art.
I buried a lot of friends in my 26 + years in the Air Force, and always felt that the turn out was more for the living than for the dead. There is something about the military fraternity that does that to you. Read the first chapter of "The Right Stuff". Now, I play bagpipes, and so I am requested to play at a LOT of funerals. Many, if not most are for military veterans, and only one has been for someone I knew personally. I feel I have to do it, because the family, the friends and the "community" all want some feeling of closure. Last week I rode to an out of town funeral with the Honor Guard from our local AF base. Interesting to hear them talk about it. They do five, six funerals a week, and they knew none of the deceased, yet they show up, not because they have to, but because they are proud of their Air Force, and know that they are carrying on a tradition. It matters not the name of your gunner, only that you were there, just as someone will be there for all the rest. -- Les F-4C(WW),E,D,G(WW)/AC-130A/MC-13E EWO ret. "ArtKramr" wrote in message ... Thoughts at a Funeral For a Stranger On the 5th of January 1945 we hit the road junction at Houfalize during the Battle of the Bulge. On this mission there was only one casualty, a radio gunner who was killed by a single piece of flak.I was not on that mission and I never knew the gunner who was killed. I choose not to reveal his identity now. But I went to his funeral as did everyone in the 344th.. I didn't know what he looked like or what kind of a person he was. Only about a fourth of everyone present was from his squadron, which meant that at his funeral, he was being surounded more by strangers than friends. As we all stood there in our class A's, I couldn' t help but think, that at a time like this, he was a stranger to most all of us. And if it were I lying there, would I also be surrounded by mourners whom I never knew, and who never knew me. I was overtaken by a great sadness about the nature of death in war. And in many ways, that sadness has never left me to this day. And I wondered of I died would there be a mourner who would think the same of me?. Or is it that this is just the nature of the beast and comes to all of us in the same way.? Arthur Kramer Visit my WW II B-26 website at: http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.495 / Virus Database: 294 - Release Date: 6/30/2003 |
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"matheson" wrote in message ...
Funny thing about that, Art. I buried a lot of friends in my 26 + years in the Air Force, and always felt that the turn out was more for the living than for the dead. There is something about the military fraternity that does that to you. Read the first chapter of "The Right Stuff". Snip: Yes. You may not know him personally, but he was a brother (now, sister too) in arms. You know what he was like. He would have been a friend had you know him. One you could borrow from or lend money too in case of need. At R-G AFB in Kansas City we were requested to perform a missing man flyby for a man killed in Nam back in the early 60's. We didn't know him, didn't know his family - and now never would. We took off in our Deuces and made the mission -weather was not good but we made it - because he was one of us. Later I led one for a very close friend; left the range early to go over the Base Chapel right on time. Your comrades and their families form one huge family. Even now, thirty five years later, I get e-mails from men I served with in SEA. I was in eleven fighter squadrons and as a result have something like 300 'brothers'. And the loss of any of them was and is a grievous loss. I might add that the primary reason my wife and I stayed in the military was the friendships formed and the mutual trust we experienced in the three years I had to serve after flying school. We both knew we'd never experience such wide-spread mutual acceptance in civilian life. We have good friends locally now in retirement but they number in the tens whereas in the USAF they numberd in the hundreds. Walt BJ |
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