Pt 1 The end

• Don Collins

o   Background about Don Collins, the coroner of Scottsburg

o   The author gives an account of Collins digging the grave for the solider who is to be buried the next day

• Guards from Fort Knox practice their nine-gun salute for the officer that it is going to be buried

o   There is an account of most of the guards, accompanied by their names

o   The author goes into detail as to what they do before the funeral starts

• The older Collins drives the funeral hearse to the grave site

o   Those who know the family, those in the military, and civilian motorcyclists surround the grave site

• The soldiers from Fort Knox lower the casket into the burial vault

o   The author then goes on to name the vault company and describe it

• The reverend speaks, bagpipers play, and three songs are played over the loudspeaker – including “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails
• Seven of the soldiers fire three volleys

o   It sounds like a single sound

o   News cameras are on them

• Leatherbee is a genuine bugler

o   He plays “Taps” and the author describes different variations of the song

o   He doesn’t close his eyes so emotion is conveyed

• After “Taps” the flag is folded by the men who lowered the casket

o   The author describes the folding of the flag and the emotions of the men folding it – their hands are shaking

• Once the flag passes inspection it’s given to an older women, who is assumed to be the soldiers mother

o   The general is standing next to her

• The general has seen too many funerals
• The general comments on the mannerisms of the soldier’s wife, Missie, at the funeral
• The author describes the myth of the flag folding
• The funeral ends

o   The general and guards fly back

o   Everyone leaves

o   The Collins’ start to fill in the grave

• The section ends with the sergeant’s name and his birth and death year

Pt 2

• This part of the story focus’s on the soldier’s mother

o   She recounts his baptism and happy times she had with him in this church

o   The mother smokes today for the first time in a long time

o   She recounts how her brother and first husband died

• Her other children came home for the funeral

o   The soldier’s older brother who is also in the army and his sister

o   Her brother and sister also come to attend their nephew’s funeral

• People in the town come to the funeral as well

o   Some because it was the mayor’s nephew and others because they knew the mother

• The author observes the faces of the people sitting in the church

o   Their love for the solider radiates off of them

Pt 3

• The soldier has been laying in the Collins funeral for sometime until his funeral

o   He was escorted from the airport by a pair of brothers

o   The brothers were greeted by hundreds of people with flags

• This was the longest and biggest procession the guards had ever seen

o   The author then explains what the Patriot Guard is and why it formed

• The soldier was pulled by a hearse driven by the older Collins and his mother followed behind with her brother
• The aunt remarks the patriotism of the people they passed
• The author tells an anecdote about where the soldier used to work
• At the end of the procession was the soldier’s best friend

o   They were outcasts in school

o   The soldier was supposed to be in his wedding

o   They rode skateboards together

o   He set up the soldier with his wife, Missie

• The friend liked to paint

o   He designed the soldier’s tombstone

• Flags lined the interstate and truck radios chimed in to welcome him home
• The soldier took a while to complete high school, hit a rough patch, and was kicked out of the house at one point

o   He went to live with his sister in Florida

o   Leaving brought him back home and he turned his life around

• The soldier had a family and got a job

o   The job wasn’t cutting it and he decided to follow in his older brother’s footsteps and join the army

• Army life suited him

o   He started in Alaska

• The last time the mother saw her son was Christmas 2006

o   She drove him to the airport in Louisville

• Now the soldier was coming home with a full procession filled with people who had known him his whole life

o   The soldier was dressed in his finery in the casket

o   He was whole enough for open viewing

• The family had a hard time seeing him and believing it was him because he was gone so long

o   His brother put his Mason ring on his brother, with his hands shaking as he did so

Pt 4

• The army Chaplin needed a quiet place before the service

o   He came with the guard

o   The author explains the color-coding system of soldiers and how they die

• The Chaplin’s calling came to him in Bosnia

o   Today hit home because he had a family

• When the hearse arrived he debriefed the family on what they would see

o   The wood caskets are heavier than metal but all soldiers are dressed the same underneath

o   The weight of caskets gives some indication of how the person died

• People were looking for distractions as to not look at the casket
• The Chaplin looked at the solder’s family and thought of his

o   He finished the reading with the 46^th psalm

• The wife folded her arms over the flag and wept

o   The mother held onto her grandchildren

o   The Chaplin cried as well

• The guards carried the casket back to the hearse
• The brothers who escorted the soldier from the airport led the procession

o   Two guards in the back of the van would soon find themselves in Iraq

Official Pt 2: Dover Air force Base

• The Pentagon called Greene

o   His business had been in the auto industry

• Until 2005 soldiers had been sent home on commercial planes

o   That changed when a family started a campaign as to how the military would be flown home and met

• High profile planes were needed to transport mutilated bodies home
• Greene’s company designed spaces for caskets in planes

o   The pilots were low-profile – one of the pilots said you just have to fly

o   There are some states that had more casualties than others while some have had none

• This soldier’s flight home was their first to Indiana
• They’ve noticed that small towns have the highest turnouts

o   Sometimes parents don’t show and sometimes the honor guard doesn’t either

• When they landed in Indiana someone from the National Guard makes sure the body matches the name and hasn’t been damaged during the flight

o   The family meets the casket in the hanger

o   Sometimes the pilots go back in the plane because they cant handle the family’s reactions

• Some soldiers stick out more in their minds than others

Pt. 3

• Larsen entered the Port Mortuary in the Air Force in Delaware
• There’s only a 12 person permanent staff there
• It’s the worlds largest mortuary
• It has records of every man and woman KIA to date
• The soldier spent five days there before returning home

o   His body was scanned for bombs

• The soldier was cleaned, his body parts tagged and cataloged, and placed back into the body bag to head home

o   There were no personal effects found on his body

o   Two rooms in the building deal with their personal effects

• Chaplains are there every day
• The soldiers can only be truly identified once they arrive

o   Then there’s an autopsy

o   The soldier suffered traumatic injuries consistent with explosives – his remains were incomplete

o   Wounds are documented and recorded in the database

o   Body fluids are replaced in order to keep from decaying

• The body is put together best for “view ability”

o   Soldiers help their comrades look this way

o   It’s an intimate, hands on process

• The solders are dressed in their best and the family chooses a wood or metal casket
• Sometimes when prepping the bodies extra steps are taken to show care – i.e. shining buttons
• The flags are last

o   They are creaseless and longer than a standard one

Pt. 4

• The Major General must attend every funeral of a soldier KIA and greet every plane landing on Dover
• The soldiers have a long way home before they make it back to the states
• Honor guards from every major military branch greet the planes with lists of the dead
• They roll out a red carpet for those returning home

o   Sometimes it’s one case, sometimes its more

o   Each case is moved one at a time and given a three second salute

• Sometimes people are rendered speechless

o   A prayer is said for those lost

• It doesn’t matter which branch carries who

Official Pt. 3

• A staff sergeant looks at the body of his friend at his feet in the helicopter
• The author describes the sergeant and tells how the two met
• A medivac was called for the soldier but he was deemed KIA
• The staff sergeant knew it was the soldier based off the radio code

o   He took off the headphones because he didn’t want to hear the rest

o   Helicopters landed and brought the soldier toward the truck

• The soldier was looked at for distinguishing features

o   The solider would be on his way to Kuwait 6 hours later

Pt. 4

• The soldier’s older brother visited him the week before his death

o   They took pictures together

o   He lost of his mother’s reaction

o   He called his unlace at home first

• The brother then made sure his aunt with was his mother
• Candidate wives gather round to see if they become widows
• They knew something was wrong

o   The wife sent her kids next door to play

• The aunt was with the mother when she opened the door to the soldiers
• Once the mother found out the news spread through the town quickly
• The wife found out and dropped the phone
• Bags were packed and people from times of the past gathered together again

Pt. 5

• The author describes what happened to the soldier when he died
• He also described the man driving the truck and the other men in the vehicle
• The soldier had just talked to his family

o   He heard an explosion while talking to them

• The author describes how the army named areas of Bhagdad