Part One: Indiana, The End

• Lede, describes Don Collins
• Insight into mind of Collins, his knowledge and childhood with Father as a mortician
• Detail and setting mood
• showing process of grave digging and Collins thought process
• Next day, naming and describing funeral attending military members
• Journey of funeral motorcade to graveyard
• Describing those awaiting as hearse drives into cemetery
• Describing casket
• Describing service and sounds
• Soldiers fire in perfect unison
• Leatherbee the bugler
• Describing training of army bugler
• Quote from Leatherbee about playing with eyes open vs eyes closed
• Lowering of casket, quote from sergeant on family
• Huber quote about soldier’s kids
• soldiers fold flag, Huber quote
• Soldier places shells in folded flag
• Dawson passes flag to older woman
• General officer Pinckney
• Pinckney talking about comforting wife
• Pinckney approaches Missie with flag
• Pinckney quote on empathy
• Details about flag
• Quote what Pinckney says to widow
• end of service, lowering of casket
• burying the caske
• Gail Bonds recalls her baby boy and dries her eyes
• Bonds and details of cigarettes
• Bonds’s experiences with deaths of those close to her
• Bonds’s attending family members
• Describing those in the church
• What attendees learned about Joe from eulogies
• Procession of body
• Barclay brothers and experience with processions
• Barclay quote
• Purpose of Patriot Guard
• Sergeant Dunaway description and quote
• Gail and Bill driving, Bill quote
• Vicki quote
• Joey’s life as mechanic
• Joey’s best friend Ryan, Ryan quote
• Ryan quote about high school
• Joey and Ryan friendship details
• Ryan quote about paintings
• Ryan designs Joey’s tombstone
• Procession down the highway with families saluting
• Emotions of the family
• Describing difficulties for Joey after high school
• Desrcibing Joey living with sister
• Ryan visiting Joey
• Joey wanting to come home
• Joey came home, piecing together his life
• Joey and Missie have children
• Joey joins army
• Desrcibing connection to brother, also in army
• Joey providing for his family
• Mom’s last time seeing Joey
• Joey being proud of self and steps
• Details back to funeral procession
• Opening of the casket at the funeral home
• Gail quote
• Mason gave Joey his ring
• Jim Staggers, army chaplain
• Staggers from Indianapolis with the funeral detail, honorable transfer
• Stagger reads the bible for comfort
• Back to present day
• Details of the ritual
• Describing lifting of caskets/ guardsmen
• Describing faces
• Details of children
• Staggers thinking of his own wife and children
• Details of family to approaching the casket
• Describing family experiencing the casket.
• Staggers holds back tears
• Casket carried back to the hearse
• Emotional reflection on the ceremony
• Two of army men in the van would be sent to Iraq

Part Two: Dover Air Force Base

• Steve Greene answers call from Pentagon
• Greene, describing work with planes
• Process of bodies coming back to States, Holley case
• More details and results of Holley incident
• Greene quote
• Pentagon asks for same carrier service for all soldiers bodies
• Kalitta’s ranks, hauling bodies
• Jones, pilot, quote
• Description of locations they fly to
• Personnel in plane
• Linton quote about turn out
• Jones quote in agreement
• Describing  funeral where neither parent showed up, Quote
• Crowds have gotten bigger
• Sergeant Betty checks paperwork
• Describing Joey’s family waiting
• Waiting was the hardest part
• Gail Quote about waiting
• Pilots emotional response to delivering body
• Describing Greene and pilots
• Major Larson worked in the port
• Descriptions of how staff at port are
• Karen Giles quote
• Karen Giles context
• Describing the building
• Inscription from port about soldiers lost
• Joey’s body and treatment
• Describing process of cleaning the body
• No personal effects on body
• Building has both a counseling and meditation section
• David Sparks quote
• Arrival of Sergeant Montgomery/Joey
• Autopsy of body, medical examiners
• Description of the autopsy, Joey missing some body parts
• Wounds were documented, eyes closed
• Describing the preparation of the body
• “Viewability”
• Put Joey’s bodie back together as they best could
• Anecdote of mortician cleaning one dead man’s hair, emotional context
• Spark’s quote
• Body dressed and placed in casket
• Anecdote, careful preparation of a body
• Placing of the flag is the last step
• Major General Formica
• Army Chief of Staff made mandatory that a general officer must attend every funeral and greet every plane landing with dead soldiers
• Formica greets Joey’s plane
• Group of officers waiting for the plane to land
• Sparks quote about religion
• K-loader lands on platform, engines shut off
• Honor guard marches out
• Sparks quote, emotional response doesn’t get easier
• Honor guard moves one case at a time
• Sparks speech and prayer
• Cases are carried off the plane
• Sparks quote about importance of this work
• Formica quote
• Cases taken to the Port mortuary

Part Three: Forward Operating Base Falcon

• Sergeant Slaght, Joey’s friend
• Slaght reflects on the KIA
• How Slaght realized it was Monty, radio code
• Slaght and guilt of friend’s death
• Arriving at makeshift morgue at the Baghdad International Airport
• Loaded Monty onto the truck
• Identifying Monty’s body
• Slaght has been awake for forty hours
• Brother Micah one of first to learn of Joey’s death
• Micah calls Aunt, conversation
• Mom’s send kids out to play, await news
• Gail and Vicki quotes, emotional reaction to son’s death
• Missie and Ryan conversation
• Britany quote
• Description of reactions and gifts to death
• Description of dangerous mission that killed Monty
• Squad in truck
• Monty had talked to wife and kids earlier
• Monty and wife conversation, lettting her know he was okay
• Driving in Iraq
• Troop spread thin
• Humvees pull into base
• Monty was teased for his age
• Captain Goodwin check the night’s mission
• Monty’s Copanhagen
• Farmer potentially hiding weapons
• Quote, Monty believed in God
• Troop begins mission, tease Monty
• Description of walk, wearing night vision glasses
• Bunkers are everywhere
• Monty told to take his time
• Explosion
• Thought Ross was injured
• Troop can’t find Monty
• Found his rifle but not him
• Gilliland finds body, missing from waist down
• “knew he was dead”
• Radioed in as KIA
• Took turns carrying him on the litter
• Couldn’t find all of him/his ring
• Ross quote, didn’t get single scratch
• Platoon in shock
• Carried him for an hour
• Medic collected all of his things on his person
• Bostick quote, thinking about Joey’s family
• Bostick doesnt’t speak to Micah for two months
• Body brought to the base’s morgue
• Chaplain leads a prayer
• Not much sleep gotten that night
• Last time the platoon saw Joey was the next morning

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.

This feature by Chris Jones is an amazing piece of investigative journalism. Using a structure of reverse chronological order, it focuses on people, places, and details in the story of Sergeant Joseph Montgomery, killed in Iraq. His final days and death are not portrayed until the end of the piece. Leading up to it is a disheartening but beautifully written inside look at people involved at each step of his journey, beginning with the funeral director’s son who digs the grave and looks on at the graveside service. The list of characters and their relation to the story, minor or major, is too long to detail in this brief write up. But it is fair to say that little to nothing is left out; few to none are left out.

Note: Breakdown by paragraphs can be found within each section.

Part One – Indiana, The End

1. Graveside service introduces reader to the story and some of the characters (paragraphs 1 – 26) a.Initially told through the eyes of Don Collins, funeral director’s son, who digs the grave and looks on at the services (1-5); b. Description of the honor guard’s versus the funeral motorcade’s route (6); c. Careful set up of the honor guard to follow protocol and graveside protocol (7-17); d. Passing of the flag to Brigadier General Belinda Pinckney, who presents to the widow, her words, her reflections (18-24, includes exposition about meaning/history of flag presentation); e. Exiting from graveside services and continuing reflections of soldiers, Brigadier General; final burial by Don Collins and his father (25-26). Note: The transitions that introduce new individuals to the readers are masterful. For instance, he uses the thoughts of one to transition to the introduction of the next.

2. Church services are depicted through the eyes of Sergeant Montgomery’s mother, Gail, beginning with her recollections of having baptized Joseph in that same church. It is heartbreaking (paragraphs 27 – 31); a. Recollection of her child as an infant, recalling his baptism (27); b. Gail’s struggles over the years. We understand some of what she has endured as well as her own resilience and strength, betrayed by her reliance on cigarettes as part of her coping (28 – 30); c. Description of what strangers could know from looking on. What a great technique for adding details not immediately related from the stories of the closest mourners! (31)  Note: The reader is learning of the subject’s life through the eyes of multiple people, giving a view not knowable to those who met Montgomery later in his life.

3. The arrival at local airport and procession to hometown, accompanied by state troopers, funeral director, family, best friend. It is a mix of ritualistic practices and individual grief (paragraphs 32-54; a. Recollections of state troopers as the largest response they’ve seen (32-34); b. Mission and origins of the Patriot Guard, formed in response to threat of protestors; words of mother who is appreciative of that (35); c. Collins, Sr. and army sergeant in car behind, followed by family members, and friend, Ryan (36-37); d. Details of Montgomery’s earlier life, friendship with Ryan, days of alienation from his family, including an episode of homelessness, reconciliation with family and girlfriend, young adult life as husband and father, including his struggles that led to army enlistment. (38-54)

4. Family viewing of the remains (paragraph 55 – 58); a. Funeral director and army sergeant determine that his remains look acceptable enough for the family to view (always up to discretion of those in attendance and the family themselves) (55-57); b. Indications that his body is not complete by older brother who attempts to put his ring on the gloved finger (there is nothing there) (58)Note: This grisly detail of the missing finger foreshadows later recognition of the details of his death and of incomplete remains.

5. Description of carrying of casket from plane to awaiting transport, mostly through the eyes of Jim Staggers, link in the chain of” honorable transfer” (paragraph 59 – 75); a. The emotionality to Staggers and the full attention he gives to each body he accompanies (59-63); b. What can be deduced from the weight of the casket and the notation that Montgomery’s is lighter than might be expected (64- 65,also foreshadowing); c. Guardsman focus on detail to keep “game face”; Staggers cannot deny his humanity and breaks down in tears after reading words of honor (66-72); d. Carrying the casket to the hearse (73-74); e. Mention that two soldiers in convoy will themselves be called to Iraq 2 months later (75). Note: further use of foreshadowing and coming to terms with realities of the circumstances of his death

Part Two – Dover Air Force Base

6. How honored transport of bodies began and how it’s carried out through the eyes of Steve Greene who own the planes enlisted for this duty (76-88); a. In Greene’s description of how he became involved and performs his services, he makes his observations of the variety of responses on a community basis known (76-88); b. Memories run into each other, Greene states, an acknowledgement of having seen so many (88). Note: This section brings into awareness a broad cast of characters, including civilians who are contracted for services in the chain of transport.

7. Through the eyes of army Major who saw Montgomery’s arrival at Dover AFB in an aluminum transfer case from oversees, description of the protocol upon arrival including check for explosives within the case, autopsy and preparation/embalming of body (89-110); a. Rather than breaking this down detail by detail, the main points to be acknowledged are that attention is paid to every detail. It is extremely painstakingly done so as not to miss anything. Mention is made of being sure to not put the wrong ring on a body, for instance. This reiterates the earlier detail of his older brother noticing that his ring was missing. Those preparing the body did not have a ring for Montgomery, foreshadowing the later reveal of missing body parts (89-108); b. Recollection of polishing brass of a soldier to be cremated – reinforcing the honor given to war dead, even if it is known only to those preparing the body (109); c. Flag added to casket (110). Note: This section emphasizes excruciating detail given to preparations to honor the fallen soldiers.
   

8. Recollections of those removing bodies from aircraft at Dover for funeral preparations (111-128); a. The formalities are clear in the words and the mechanics of transfer. Bodies are being brought into the morgue for identification and preparation, as described in the preceding section. There is protocol and sobriety at each step. Note: Jones does not miss any opportunity to convey deeply felt emotions and honor conveyed by traditions.
   

Part Three – Forward Operating Base Falcon

9. Recognition by Montgomery’s friend, Staff Sergeant Terry Slaght, of the death (129-136)-This section highlights the reaction, disbelief, of a close army friend to the realization that it was Montgomery’s body in the truck to be carried for air transport. He examines his friend’s body for identifying features, as he has been taught to do. Note:  The story is building to the disclosure of details of his death. In portraying Slaght’s dismay and grief, the widespread impact of this one person’s life is apparent.
   

10. Brother’s last contacts, visit to Bagdad (which is amazing in itself); chain of contacts regarding notification of death (137-162); a. Micah visit Joseph in Bagdad (137-145); b. Family members being notified of death, with Micah as central figure, attempting to protect family members from trauma; c. Culminating with notification to mother and wife (149-161); d. Knock at the door of Missie, Sergeant Montgomery’s wife, at 4 a.m. This drops like a hammer. (162). Note: The readers know it’s coming, yet the impact is still great. We are carried along to the moments at which family members are faced with the notification.

11. Wife’s last contact, which turns out to be the night of his death; comrades’ discovery of his body without the lower half missing; carrying of his body by fellow soldiers to army morgue (163-224). Note: Readers are led to these moments in which Montgomery, as a living being, talks with his wife and is on duty with his fellow soldiers.

12. The last time the platoon saw Sergeant Montgomery as the air transport, carrying his body back to the U.S., took flight and disappeared into the sky (225). Note: It is interesting that the piece ends with fellow soldiers watching the air transport carrying him back to the states, rather than with his final moments of life. It emphasizes that this piece is really about his place in the lives of others.

1. Lede
2. Indiana burial law and Collins Jr. history
3. Begins digging
4. More digging
5. Day of the funeral
6. Funeral motorcade
7. Entering the cemetery
8. Casket removed from hearse. Description of vault.
9. Prayer and music at funeral
10. Shots fired in unison
11. Genuine vs fake buglers
12. Taps
13. Should you close your eyes?
14. Return to grave to fold flag
15. “He had kids”
16. Folding flag, hands shaking
17. Folding flag, shells inserted
18. Flag inspected
19. General attending funeral
20. “It’s ok not to be fine”
21. Approaching Missie
22. Presenting the flag
23. Meaning of the folding of the flag
24. “This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation and the United States Army in appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service.”
25. Service owner, mourners leave
26. Collins buries the body
27. Gail Bond sits at church
28. Needs a cigarette
29. Bond’s losses
30. Those who remain (in the church)
31. Why they came
32. What one could learn about Joey
33. David and Tim Barclay introduced
34. 3 mile procession assembles
35. “the biggest we’ve seen”–decide to shut down highway
36. The Patriot Guard
37. Sergeant Charles Dunaway (who carries medals and accompanies hearse) introduced
38. Procession begins
39. Townspeople observe
40. Joey used to work at the steel forge and looked like that mechanic
41. Joey’s best friend Ryan Heacock
42. How they became friends
43. Helping each other out
44. Would sell Joey my paintings
45. Designing Joey’s tombstone
46. Pulled onto the interstate. More mourners
47. “I can’t even tell you what that meant to our family,”
48. Tough times and tough love
49. Went to Jacksonville
50. Ryan visits Jacksonville
51. Asks to come back home
52. Joey comes home. Gets a job, gets back with Missie
53. Not making ends meet, joins the Army
54. “He always thought a whole lot of Micah,” Ryan said.
55. Army suited him
56. Last visit and last picture at Christmas 2006
57. “When he got ready to go on the plane, I thought, You’re standing so tall, you like yourself, you’re proud of yourself,” she said.
58. Coming home in a different way
59. Open the casket
60. Family looks at the body
61. Mason ring, realize hand is missing
62. Jim Staggers, Army chaplain
63. Honorable transfer
64. Staggers confronts grief, calling to be a chaplain
65. “What would I want for my wife and kids if I were the one not to make it back?”
66. Preparing the family
67. Deducing from the weight of the casket
68. Game face
69. “Pick out a flower”
70. Pallbearers withdraw
71. Psalm 46
72. Missie weeps
73. “Daddy’s here.”
74. Staggers weeps
75. “You can’t deny your humanity.”
76. Signals honor guard to transfer casket to hearse
77. Procession begins, honor guard departs
78. Preview of 2 men’s future
79. “Steve Greene picked up the phone in late November 2006. It was the Pentagon.”
80. Greene and Kalitta Charters
81. Soldiers’ remains  formerly shipped like parcels, introduce John and Stacey Holley
82. Holley Provision
83. “Auditioning” Kalitta
84. Kalitta prepares for duty
85. Kalitta crews
86. “Once you’re in the plane, you’re just flying”
87. Common/uncommon routes
88. Carrying Joe Montgomery
89. “The smaller the town the bigger the turnout”
90. “Always”
91. Negative experiences on first flights
92. Busy time in May
93. Unbuckle from seats
94. Family sees the casket
95. “That was the hardest part”
96. Why Linton doesn’t stand in the open door
97. “Some flights Jones and Linton remember more clearly than others”
98. Introduce Major Cory Larsen
99. Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs
100. “Some people are broken here,” said Karen Giles, the director of the Carson Center. “But there are a lot of repeaters. We’re very protective of each other.”
101. Describe Giles
102. Describe the center
103. “It includes, in part”
104. Lists of deceased in various conflicts/tragedies
105. Operation Iraqi Freedom names, including Montgomery
106. Montgomery still in aluminum transfer case
107. Explosive Ordnance Disposal Room
108. Unpacking the case and logging body/effects
109. “No personal effects were found on Sergeant Montgomery’s body”
110. Counseling and meditation
111. Chaplain David Sparks
112. “The chaplains are back there with us every single day,” Larsen said. “Everyone appreciates that.”
113. Montgomery officially identified
114. Autopsy begins
115. Autopsy findings
116. Embalming suite
117. Mortuary practices
118. “viewability”
119. Mortician “puts Montgomery back together”
120. Anecdote from Sparks–“His mother washed his hair the first time, and I’m washing it for the last time.”
121. “It’s very intimate,” Sparks said. “Preparing remains is a very intimate thing. This is hands-on.”
122. Placed in casket/dressed
123. Karen Giles anecdote (cremated soldier)
124. Draping the flags
125. Introduce Major General Richard P. Formica
126. Requirements about generals
127. Boeing 747
128. Waiting for the plane
129. Religion
130. K-Loader/Red Carpet
131. Honor guards march to jet
132. Different planeloads
133. Moving cases
134. Sparks’ prayers
135. “But on this evening, his voice was strong and clear”
136. Prayer
137. “We are proud to welcome home these fallen heroes, to share the grief of their families, and to offer our honor and respect.
138. “Now, as always, we pray for a time when we are not cursed by terrorism and when young men and women do not die in war.
139. “This we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace.
140. “Amen.”
141. Carrying cases off the lift
142. “This is the most important thing I’ve ever done,” Sparks would say later of his job here. “I may never do anything more important.”
143. Driven to mortuary
144. Introduce Staff Sergeant Terry Slaght
145. KIA
146. Finding out Monty was dead
147. “I should have been there.”
148. Baghdad International Airport
149. Body transferred from helicopter
150. Identifying the body
151. Montgomery’s and Slaght’s travels
152. Micah Montgomery hears news
153. Micah calls his aunt
154. “Hi, A.V. It’s me, Micah.”
155. “I know…. Why are you calling here?”
156. Unlike his brother, Micah rarely called home from Iraq and never called Vicki. Her heart had begun to pound.
157. “It’s about Joey.”
158. “What about Joey? Is everything all right?”
159. “No,” he said.
160. Asks Vicki to go to Gail’s house
161. Wives begin to gather in Alaska
162. The wait for news
163. Vicki arrives at Gail’s
164. “No, no, no, no, no, no…” Gail said, beginning to cry.
165. Vicki began to cry, too.
166. “Which one?” Gail asked.
167. Vicki could only mouth the word: “Joey.”
168. Phones begin to ring
169. Ryan calls Missie before she knows
170. “Missie,” Ryan said, “I’m so sorry.”
171. Then Ryan heard the clatter of the phone on the floor.
172. Women help Missie. “A second round of waiting”
173. Official news arrives for Missie
174. Gathering of neighbors and family at Gail’s
175. “At four o’clock in the morning, there came the knock at their door.” (Gail)
176. Sgt. Montgomery, night of his death
177. Everyone in the truck
178. Thinking about phone conversation with family
179. Speaking with Missie when he heard an explosion
180. “Oh, my God, I’ve got to go,” Joey had said, and he’d hung up
181. Anxious wait
182. “I’m ok” email
183. The drive
184. Turn onto Red Wings
185. Road turns to dirt
186. Patrol Base Red
187. Confirm night’s mission
188. “If he didn’t have Copenhagen, I don’t think he would go on the mission,” Ross said later.
189. Farmer’s cache of weapons
190. Roles assigned
191. Moving out
192. Walking down the road
193. ADA ruins
194. Rudberg tells Montgomery to slow down
195. Path in the grass
196. “Two sounds broke open the night:
197. “Crack, then BOOM.
198. “It was impossibly loud, “the loudest noise I’ve ever heard in my life,” Goodwin said.”
199. Ross and Gilliland fall
200. “Ross couldn’t hear Gilliland yelling at him, “Ross, are you hit? Ross, Ross!”
201. “Gilliland thought it was Ross who’d been hurt.”
202. “Then you two started screaming his name,” Meeks recalled later.
203. “We couldn’t see Monty,” Ross said.
204. IEDs often planted in clusters
205. “Come in 11”
206. Can’t find Monty
207. M4 stripped down by the force of the blast
208. Grab hold of what felt like a uniform
209. “That’s when he saw Sergeant Montgomery. His eyes were open, but his body stopped at the waist.”
210. “I knew he was gone,” Gilliland said
211. “Ross staggered over and saw him, too. “There was nothing we could do. We just knew.”
212. “I remember seeing his blank stare,” Rudberg said. “It’s all so surreal, too, because you have to see it with that fucking night vision.”
213. “It doesn’t look good”
214. They never found all of him
215. Taking turns carrying the stretcher
216. Only Gilliland refused to be spelled
217. Just kept walking
218. “No one spoke.”
219. “Some of them were in shock.”
220. “All of them were covered in blood.”
221. Meet with a sniper team
222. Medic puts body in bag
223. Drive back to Falcon
224. Someone breaks news to Micah, he leaves for home
225. Bostick only spoke with Micah after his own brother dies
226. Drove through gates of Falcon
227. “That’s when I lost it,” Meeks said
228. “That’s when most of us broke down,” Ross said. “I’ve never been that emotional in my entire life.”
229. Chaplain identifies body
230. Prayer
231. Burn uniforms
232. Last time the platoon saw Montgomery

Outline

• Don Collins sits outside planning the next plot he needed to dig for a casket.
• Collins had grown up helping his family run the funeral home with his brothers. He preferred to work outside.
• Collins grabbed a shovel and made his first dig into the ground.
• He protected the ground around the hole with plywood. He took the pieces of earth to the far corner of the Scottsburg Cemetary
• The next day, a vanload of soldiers showed up for the funeral. They stood in formation and took their places.
• The hearse took a longer route than the soldiers did to get to the cemetery from the church
• At 1 o’clock the heart arrived at the cemetery with a crowd of people waiting for it.
• The soldiers lifted the casket from the hearse to the lowering machine. The casket was in a special vault designed specifically for soldiers. The soldiers took their weapons from the pile.
• There was a prayer, a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace,” three recorded songs, and then Dawson gave the soldiers their signal.
• The seven soldiers fired three volleys each in unison.
• Leatherbee described as a genuine bugler
• The playing of the bugle, differences between different bugle players
• Open or closed eyes when playing the bugle at a funeral
• Soldiers folded the flag
• Description of the folding of the flag (for 4 graphs)
• Flag was inspected
• Flag handed to the general officer assigned to attend funerals
• General Officer’s interaction with the wife of the fallen soldier
• Officer drops to her knees in front of wife to give her the flag
• Meaning of the flag
• The end of the service
• Don Jr. brings dirt back from far side of the cemetery and placed the temporary metal marker on the head of the grave
• Gail (soldier’s mom) remembers the soldier’s Baptism as one of the firsts in the church
• Gail’s cigarette kit and smoking addiction
• The many losses of Gail’s life
• Joe’s Family that was still alive and at the funeral
• Attendees of the funeral
• Why Joey joined the army
• The escort from the airport to the funeral home
• The long procession at the airport
• The biggest procession the policemen had ever seen
• The Patriot Guard
• The Sergeants in the escort
• Gail’s car in the procession
• People crying for them on the sidewalks
• Joey’s work at the steel forge
• Joey’s best friend crying while driving thinking of their friendship
• They became friends in high school
• How they helped each other
• Joey buying ryan’s art
• Ryan designed tombstones
• The procession down the highway, families saluting
• Meant a lot to the family
• Explains how life was hard for Joey after high school
• He went to live with his sister
• Ryan came to visit him there
• Joey wanted to come home
• Joey came home and got his life together
• Joey and Missie had kids and didn’t have enough money
• Joined the army in 2005
• He joined to be like his brother
• Joey was able to provide for his family
• The last time Gail saw Joey
• Joey was proud of himself
• Back to the procession
• They opened the casket at the funeral home and decided to show the family
• Gail needed proof
• Mason gave Joey his ring
• Enter Jim Staggers
• Staggers came from Indianapolis with the funeral detail. Waited fro the “Honorable transfer”
• Stagger read the bible behind the hangar. Used the bible for comfort.
• Today as a return
• Details of the ritual
• The way lifting caskets gives information to guardsmen
• Keep their “game faces” despite what they learned from the casket
• Sight of children
• Staggers thought of his own wife and children
• Invited the family to approach the casket
• Family interacts with the casket.
• Staggers held back tears
• Carried the casket to the hearse
• Reflect on the ceremony
• Two of the people in the van would be sent to Iraq

Part Two

• Steve Green answered a call from The Pentagon
• Making plans with the Air Force
• How deceased soldiers used to be transported
• Campaign to change the way the Army handles deaths
• Kalitta had already done some work fro the Army
• Greene asked if Kalitta could handle all the flights of deceased soldiers in the same way he did Tucker and Manchaca
• Randomly assigned crews for the assignemtns
• Some routes have been flown many times
• First time the men flew into Seymour/
• They had 2 stops to make
• The smaller the town, the bigger the turnout
• Spoke about a funeral where neither parent showed up
• Crowds have grown over time
• Sergeant Betty checked the paperwork when they landed
• Joey’s family had been waiting for hours
• Waiting was the hardest part
• They transferred the casket off of the plane
• Pilots have gotten less emotional
• First time Major Cory Larsen was in the Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base
• Larson worked in the port
• Those that work there are protective of each other
• Karen Giles has worked there since 2003
• Description of the building
• She prepared Joey to be returned home
• First into the EOD Room
• Process of cleaning the body
• No personal effects on the body.
• The atrium of the building has a counseling and meditation section
• David Sparks talked about his conversations with people in the atrium
• Arrival of Sergeant Montgomery
• Autopsy
• Description of the autopsy
• Wounds were documented and recorded. Eyes were closed.
• Continuation of preparing the body
• Preserve Viewability
• Put them back together as best as they could
• The story of a mortician cleaning a dead mans hair tenderly
• Placed the body in a casket
• Story of a preparation of a body even though it was to be cremated
• Placement of the flag is the last step
• Enter Major General Richard P. Formica
• General officer must attend every funeral and greet every plan landing with dead soldiers in its hold
• Formica’s turn
• The entire group that is waiting for the plane to land
• Chaplain Sparks tells a story relating it to the bible
• K-loader enters the platform
• Honor guard marched out
• It doesn’t get easier
• Honor guard moves one case at a time
• Spark’s voice
• Speech / prayer by Sparks
• Cases are carried off the plane
• Sparks believed this is his most important work
• Formica gets choked up talking about the day
• The cases were taken to the Port Mortuary

Part Three

• Enter Sergeant Terry Slaght, Sergeant Montgomery’s friend
• Slaught was with Joey’s body in the plane
• Slaght arranged the flight after Joey passed away in action
• When Slaght realized it was Monty
• Listened to the drum of the helicopter as he thought about how he should have been there
• Arrival at the Baghdad International Airport
• Loaded Sergeant Montgomery onto the truck
• Transport from the airport to the base
• Review of the mission the night before
• Monty needed his Copenhagen to do any mission
• The mission was dangerous
• Monty’s squad was in the front
• Monty was teased for his age
• They started on their walk wearing night vision glasses
• They felt and saw bunkers
• They felt like they were being watched
• A blow was made
• Thought Ross was the one injured but it wasn’t
• They couldn’t find Monty
• They found his rifle but not him
• They found him and knew he was dead
• Night vision made it surreal
• They deemed it a KIA
• Took turns carrying him
• They couldn’t find all of him
• Everyone was surprised Ross was ok from the explosion
• The platoon was in shock
• They carried him for an hour
• They collected all of his things from his person and put him in a body bag
• Bostick thought about Joey’s family
• Bostick didn’t speak to Micah for two months
• He was brought to the morgue
• They prayed
• No one in the platoon could sleep
• They last time the platoon saw Joey was the next morning