Outline

Part One: Indiana, The End

  1. Lede, scene setting
  2. Establishes that the family is involved with the death process (coroners) and that Don Jr. would rather not continue this legacy
  3. He digs in the ground
  4. 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
  5. Soldiers come to the funeral, it is clear he knows them, they set up, also gives time stamp (May 2007)
  6. Talks about the route taken by the hearse
  7. Hearse arrives; discusses the procession
  8. 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.
  9. More about the funeral ritual — “Amazing Grace” plays, a song by Nine Inch Nails (the dead clearly liked the band), and soldiers are signaled
  10. Soldiers fire honorary shots
  11. Leatherbee prepares to play
  12. Leatherbee plays, discusses bugle playing
  13. Leatherbee quote
  14. Soldiers return to fold flag; quote about how difficult that is, particularly for young families
  15. Dawson (soldier) talks about how he knew the family would remember the flag folding later
  16. Puts shells inside flag
  17. Presents flag to family
  18. Brigadier General used to explain process of getting military officials to attend military funerals & discussion about her always remembering the faces of funeral attendees
  19. Talks about comforting the wife of the dead soldier, Missie
  20. Presents, on knees, the flag to Missie
  21. Talks about how they try to relate to the families of dead soldiers
  22. The myth of folding the flag
  23. Quote said during flag presentation
  24. Mourners leave funeral
  25. Placing of the temporary headstone
  26. Name of soldier → Sgt. Joe Montgomery
  27. Gail Bond remembers Joe’s life (Gail is his mother)
  28. Gail’s reliance on smoking is described — she uses this for stress and negative events keep her from quitting
  29. Description of those events
  30. Talks about strangers attending the funeral because he was the first soldier from that town to die in Iraq
  31. 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.
  32. Escort from airport to the funeral home
  33. More about the process of getting him to the funeral home
  34. Gail worries about the funeral being picketed
  35. Dunaway, a paratrooper, says he thinks it is an honor to escort the casket
  36. Talks about driving by and seeing people react
  37. Joey previously worked at a steel forge
  38. Joey’s best friend was Ryan Heacock — he was to be his best man at his wedding
  39. How Joey & Ryan became friends in high school
  40. Ryan set Joey up with Missie
  41. Ryan used to sell Joey his paintings and Missie has a collection
  42. Ryan designed Joey’s tombstone
  43. Interstate, mourners.
  44. Quote about family being honored and it meaning a lot to them
  45. Joey was homeless for a year when his parents kicked him out
  46. He went to Florida to live with his sister
  47. Ryan brings Joey home and Gail says he must work on his problems if he’s going to move back in
  48. He agrees and comes home. He dates Missie again
  49. He fails to make ends meet and joins the Army as an alternative way to care for his family
  50. Things smoothed out in their lives
  51. Gail reflects on the last time she saw Joey alive at Christmas in 2006
  52. Joey comes home again, but in his casket
  53. Opening the casket
  54. Viewing the body
  55. Micah gives Joey his Mason’s ring and the hand curls in on itself; Gail cries
  56. Jim Staggers is introduced
  57. Describes “honorable transfer”
  58. Talks about how Staggers came to this profession
  59. Staggers reflects on what it would be like if he had been the one to die
  60. Talks about how pallbearers can tell certain things about the bodies of the people in caskets based on weight
  61. Joey’s casket is too light but they don’t react to this outwardly
  62. Finding ways to keep their “game faces”
  63. Pallbearers withdraw
  64. Reading from Psalms  46
  65. Missie sobs
  66. Gail comforts children
  67. Staggers cries
  68. Honor guard carries casket to the back of the hearse
  69. The state troopers talk about how to do ‘better next time’
  70. Two people in the van will go to Iraq also

Part 2: Dover Air Force Base

  1. Steve Greene gets a call from the Pentagon and makes plans with the Air Force
  2. Description of how deceased soldiers were transported
  3. They Holleys campaign to change how the Army handles deaths
  4. Kalitta had already been stationed
  5. Greene asks Kalitta if could handle all the flights of deceased soldiers the same as Tucker and Manchaca
  6. Crew is randomly assigned out of Kalitta’s ranks
  7. Jones and Linton have flown the same route many times
  8. Reveals that Jones and Linton helped fly Joey home to Seymour
  9. They talk about how more people tend to show up in smaller towns
  10. Discussion about parents not attending funerals
  11. 85 hours of flying in a two-week stretch
  12. Checking of paperwork
  13. Pushing the casket off of the ball mat and onto the lift
  14. Steve Green says he’ll always remember Seymour
  15. Major Cory Larsen introduced
  16. Larsen worked at the Port Mortuary at the Dover Air Force Base
  17. He is protective of co-workers
  18. Karen Giles worked in the mortuary as well
  19. Description of the building
  20. Karen is the person who prepared Joey to return to Seymour
  21. Process of cleaning the body
  22. Talk about other areas of the building, including a counseling and meditation section
  23. David Sparks talks about people in the atrium; he has been there since just after 9/11
  24. Arrival of Joey
  25. Description of how to perform an autopsy
  26. Specifics of Joey’s autopsy
  27. Wounds are recorded.
  28. The body is further prepared
  29. Talks about ‘viewability’ as a way of giving to the family
  30. Morticians talk about putting soldiers back together
  31. Description of cleaning a dead man’s hair
  32. Placing the body in the casket
  33. Cremation preparation
  34. Placement of the flag is the last step of the process
  35. Introduction of Major General Richard P. Formica
  36. Description of Formica’s duties in the death/burial process of soldiers
  37. Formica was there when Joey came in
  38. Chaplin Sparks tells a story about the Bible
  39. K-Loader enters the platform
  40. Honor guard marches
  41. Honor guard handles one case at a time
  42. Sparks gives a speech and says a prayer.
  43. Sparks believes this is the most important work he can do
  44. Formica gets emotional
  45. Port Mortuary takes the cases

Part 3: Forward Operating Base Falcon

  1. Sgt. Terry Slaght was Joey’s friend and arranged his angel flight
  2. Talk about how Slaght realized it was his friend
  3. Regrets of Slaght
  4. Arrival at the Baghdad airport
  5. Getting Joey in the truck
  6. Transporting Joey’s body to the base
  7. Description of how Gail found out about Joey’s death, how Missie found out, etc.
  8. Review of what happened on the mission that Joey was on when he died; talks about music, emailing Missie, etc.
  9. Description of “house duty”
  10. Joey’s squad went first
  11. Joey is teased, but respected by the men who follow him into battle
  12. Joey is blown up in an explosion, eyewitness comments and quotes
  13. They can’t find Joey, then find his rifle
  14. Later they find his body and know immediately he was dead
  15. The team carries him out, though they couldn’t find all of his body
  16. Platoon talks about their shock and how surprised they were that Ross was okay
  17. Talk about taking care of his body and making sure to get all of his stuff to send back
  18. The platoon mourns
  19. Seeing Joey for the last time as platoon members on May 23.