I paused on discussing this bit of oversharing since my son passed while on active duty but not in service.
He had been stationed at Ft Sill in that truck stop of a town Lawton OK (have fun story from visiting him January 2020, but not for this thread). His birthday is February, and 2020 he turned 21, but such is life he "had to work". He was on funeral detail. He played trumpet. Fast forward 7 months.
When he passed, we had already moved to outside Augusta, and there were more than enough friends and neighbors who helped get us linked up with the right folks at ft Gordon. That was a huge blessing. They sent their funeral details to us. In my brain, i was expecting older men, but they were definitely all my sons age. They showed up, almost like it was their job, they knew where to go and what to do...yes, I was slightly distracted thinking "but how are they gonna know". Anyway, flag presentation happened. My wife and I had aligned such that our 12 year old daughter would be the receiver. The bearer made the turn toward us and you could see him choke. He persevered and held it together.
Its probably only a pair of "sweet" memories on that day. We rode to church with his ashes blasting iron maiden and motley crue...
