Part One: Indiana, The End
- Lede, scene setting
- Establishes that the family is involved with the death process (coroners) and that Don Jr. would rather not continue this legacy
- He digs in the ground
- Digs, sets up the plywood and takes dirt to far side of the cemetery — hints that funeral might be special as he behaves differently than normal
- Soldiers come to the funeral, it is clear he knows them, they set up, also gives time stamp (May 2007)
- Talks about the route taken by the hearse
- Hearse arrives; discusses the procession
- Soldiers take out casket; it is made for soldiers who died in Iraq and depicts scenes from the war. Also talks about people filing in.
- More about the funeral ritual — “Amazing Grace” plays, a song by Nine Inch Nails (the dead clearly liked the band), and soldiers are signaled
- Soldiers fire honorary shots
- Leatherbee prepares to play
- Leatherbee plays, discusses bugle playing
- Leatherbee quote
- Soldiers return to fold flag; quote about how difficult that is, particularly for young families
- Dawson (soldier) talks about how he knew the family would remember the flag folding later
- Puts shells inside flag
- Presents flag to family
- Brigadier General used to explain process of getting military officials to attend military funerals & discussion about her always remembering the faces of funeral attendees
- Talks about comforting the wife of the dead soldier, Missie
- Presents, on knees, the flag to Missie
- Talks about how they try to relate to the families of dead soldiers
- The myth of folding the flag
- Quote said during flag presentation
- Mourners leave funeral
- Placing of the temporary headstone
- Name of soldier → Sgt. Joe Montgomery
- Gail Bond remembers Joe’s life (Gail is his mother)
- Gail’s reliance on smoking is described — she uses this for stress and negative events keep her from quitting
- Description of those events
- Talks about strangers attending the funeral because he was the first soldier from that town to die in Iraq
- Talks about how the people at the funeral couldn’t have known details about him — growing up in poverty, wanting more for his kids, being ashamed of his jobs, etc.
- Escort from airport to the funeral home
- More about the process of getting him to the funeral home
- Gail worries about the funeral being picketed
- Dunaway, a paratrooper, says he thinks it is an honor to escort the casket
- Talks about driving by and seeing people react
- Joey previously worked at a steel forge
- Joey’s best friend was Ryan Heacock — he was to be his best man at his wedding
- How Joey & Ryan became friends in high school
- Ryan set Joey up with Missie
- Ryan used to sell Joey his paintings and Missie has a collection
- Ryan designed Joey’s tombstone
- Interstate, mourners.
- Quote about family being honored and it meaning a lot to them
- Joey was homeless for a year when his parents kicked him out
- He went to Florida to live with his sister
- Ryan brings Joey home and Gail says he must work on his problems if he’s going to move back in
- He agrees and comes home. He dates Missie again
- He fails to make ends meet and joins the Army as an alternative way to care for his family
- Things smoothed out in their lives
- Gail reflects on the last time she saw Joey alive at Christmas in 2006
- Joey comes home again, but in his casket
- Opening the casket
- Viewing the body
- Micah gives Joey his Mason’s ring and the hand curls in on itself; Gail cries
- Jim Staggers is introduced
- Describes “honorable transfer”
- Talks about how Staggers came to this profession
- Staggers reflects on what it would be like if he had been the one to die
- Talks about how pallbearers can tell certain things about the bodies of the people in caskets based on weight
- Joey’s casket is too light but they don’t react to this outwardly
- Finding ways to keep their “game faces”
- Pallbearers withdraw
- Reading from Psalms 46
- Missie sobs
- Gail comforts children
- Staggers cries
- Honor guard carries casket to the back of the hearse
- The state troopers talk about how to do ‘better next time’
- Two people in the van will go to Iraq also
Part 2: Dover Air Force Base
- Steve Greene gets a call from the Pentagon and makes plans with the Air Force
- Description of how deceased soldiers were transported
- They Holleys campaign to change how the Army handles deaths
- Kalitta had already been stationed
- Greene asks Kalitta if could handle all the flights of deceased soldiers the same as Tucker and Manchaca
- Crew is randomly assigned out of Kalitta’s ranks
- Jones and Linton have flown the same route many times
- Reveals that Jones and Linton helped fly Joey home to Seymour
- They talk about how more people tend to show up in smaller towns
- Discussion about parents not attending funerals
- 85 hours of flying in a two-week stretch
- Checking of paperwork
- Pushing the casket off of the ball mat and onto the lift
- Steve Green says he’ll always remember Seymour
- Major Cory Larsen introduced
- Larsen worked at the Port Mortuary at the Dover Air Force Base
- He is protective of co-workers
- Karen Giles worked in the mortuary as well
- Description of the building
- Karen is the person who prepared Joey to return to Seymour
- Process of cleaning the body
- Talk about other areas of the building, including a counseling and meditation section
- David Sparks talks about people in the atrium; he has been there since just after 9/11
- Arrival of Joey
- Description of how to perform an autopsy
- Specifics of Joey’s autopsy
- Wounds are recorded.
- The body is further prepared
- Talks about ‘viewability’ as a way of giving to the family
- Morticians talk about putting soldiers back together
- Description of cleaning a dead man’s hair
- Placing the body in the casket
- Cremation preparation
- Placement of the flag is the last step of the process
- Introduction of Major General Richard P. Formica
- Description of Formica’s duties in the death/burial process of soldiers
- Formica was there when Joey came in
- Chaplin Sparks tells a story about the Bible
- K-Loader enters the platform
- Honor guard marches
- Honor guard handles one case at a time
- Sparks gives a speech and says a prayer.
- Sparks believes this is the most important work he can do
- Formica gets emotional
- Port Mortuary takes the cases
Part 3: Forward Operating Base Falcon
- Sgt. Terry Slaght was Joey’s friend and arranged his angel flight
- Talk about how Slaght realized it was his friend
- Regrets of Slaght
- Arrival at the Baghdad airport
- Getting Joey in the truck
- Transporting Joey’s body to the base
- Description of how Gail found out about Joey’s death, how Missie found out, etc.
- Review of what happened on the mission that Joey was on when he died; talks about music, emailing Missie, etc.
- Description of “house duty”
- Joey’s squad went first
- Joey is teased, but respected by the men who follow him into battle
- Joey is blown up in an explosion, eyewitness comments and quotes
- They can’t find Joey, then find his rifle
- Later they find his body and know immediately he was dead
- The team carries him out, though they couldn’t find all of his body
- Platoon talks about their shock and how surprised they were that Ross was okay
- Talk about taking care of his body and making sure to get all of his stuff to send back
- The platoon mourns
- Seeing Joey for the last time as platoon members on May 23.