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



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Subject: Thoughts at a funeral for a stranger
From: "matheson"
Date: 7/3/03 3:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

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.

--

You are of course correct. It is matter of tradition and the honor of the
corps.
But I always thought that if it were I Iying there I would only want the men
of my squadron at my graveside. My friends, The men I flew with in close
formation.The men I went to town with, went on leave with, spent long hours
chattng with, shared dreams and ambitions with. At least those were my feelings
at the time. And they persist to this day.

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

"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