Part 1: Indiana, The End
- Subject is Don Collins, middle-aged and mapping rectangle
- Spent childhood working with father embalming bodies, familiar
- Begins digging burial
- Scooping dirt for grave, decides to move it out of sight
- Military members arrive and assemble for the funeral
- Motorcade took a longer route to cemetery
- Motorcade arrives, flanked by civilians paying respect
- Casket, which is specially designed for Iraq vets, is removed
- Reverend leads prayers and songs, including Nine Inch Nails, are played
- Soldiers fire their three shots in perfect unison
- The bugler at the funeral is a real musician, which is rare now
- Leatherbee begins playing Taps
- The bugler always keeps his eyes open when he plays at funerals
- Folding the flag can be the hardest part for soldiers, close to the family
- Soldiers hands were shaking as they folded the flag
- Huber placed polished shells into folded flag
- Dawson passes flag to general
- Belinda Pinckney was assigned to attend funeral, as a general officer
- Connected with the wife, Missie, to help her deal with loss
- Says she must be strong for families, it could be her
- Folded flag is held closely to widow’s chest
- Service over, people begin parting ways
- Collins begins burying tomb, temporary tombstone for Sgt. Montgomery
- Mother remembers baptizing her son in the same church of his funeral
- Gail smokes to relieve stress and has a kit to make it more ‘ladylike’
- She has lost many people in her life, but losing Joey really got to her
- Looking at her surviving family and friends at the funeral
- Many people at the funeral did not know Joey well, various reasons
- People could piece together bits about him, but not his reasons for serving
- Joey’s body was escorted to his hometown by two state troopers
- The procession would be three miles long
- Biggest procession they had seen
- Patriot Guard Riders formed in response to fundamentalists taunting families at soldiers’ funerals
- Micah Montgomery’s friend, Charles Dunaway, volunteered to be official escort
- Townspeople lined the sidewalk to watch the procession
- People crying for family
- Joey used to work at steel forge
- Joey’s best friend, Ryan Heacock, distraught over losing friend
- Friends in high school as outcasts
- Introduced Joey to Missie
- Ryan sold paintings to Joey
- Ryan designs tombstones, including Joey’s
- Mourners line the streets with flags
- Joey was homeless after high school, troubled
- Went to Florida to live with sister, Mindy
- Ryan visited to help Joey and Mindy
- Joey asked mom to take him home
- Came home, became father to Missie’s daughter
- Two more pregnancies, little money, so Joey joined the Army
- Inspired by brother
- Life felt properly aligned in Alaska
- Gail last saw Joey on Christmas, took family pictures
- Joey is coming home again
- Joey looked good enough for a viewing
- Gail and Missie spent a long time looking at him
- Tried to replace Joey’s ring to find glove was filled with cotton
- Army chaplain Jim Staggers waits for plane
- Joey would be honorable transfer
- Staggers felt calling to be chaplain
- Prepared family for funeral
- Guardsmen can tell a lot about a soldier by carrying casket
- Kept game faces with light casket
- Staggers begins prayers
- Missie and Gail approach casket with family to pay respects
- Carry casket back to hearse
- Two state troopers would join National Guard
Part Two: Dover AFB
- Soldiers bodies are taken back to the U.S. via charter plane, used to be commercial
- Now planes that only transport fallen soldiers
- Kalitta crew randomly assigned to haul bodies
- Make mental maps of routes and places
- Crew had never been to Seymour before Joey
- Smaller town, bigger turnout
- As it became more common, people got more practiced
- Casket moved to ball mat in hangar, family really feels it at this point
- Jones doesn’t watch
- Tons of people showed up in Seymour, remember most trips
- Mortuary is tough place to work – Cory Larsen
- Only 12 permanent staff, many volunteer to return
- Giles doesn’t discuss what she sees
- Dignity, honor, respect
- 3,431 is Joey’s number
- Five days at mortuary, processed
- Nothing dangerous found on him, no personal effects
- Counseling and mediation rooms available
- Chaplains are always available
- Joey was “believed to be” status at first
- Autopsy to document and predict
- Joey likely killed instantly, close to explosive
- Morticians must close eyes
- Fluid replacement and repair of body
- Want to make body viewable to family like they remember
- Body put in casket in full uniform, then flag
- Richard Formica – moving bodies is important job
- He was there when Joey came in
- Lists of “incoming sheets”
- Chaplain struggled with religion
- Transfers are given red carpet
- Honor guards march out, crew always struggles
- Sparks leads prayer as cases are loaded into trunk
- Formica – job is always difficult, always a family
Part Three: Forward Operating Base Falcon
- Terry Slaght was friends with Montgomery, KIA south Baghdad
- Slaght to arrange flight, wants to be with friend
- Loads Joey’s body into truck, placed in bag
- Slaght waits
- Micah hears of Joey’s death, calls aunt and uncle
- News coming in at base, not sure who
- Vicki tells Gail, word spreads
- Ryan tells Missie, friends gather to support her
- Joey was in Humvee listening to music, other people in vehicle too
- On phone with Missie, explosion, told her he’s ok
- Driving down dirt road, pull into patrol base
- Captains brief men on mission, raid of a farm
- Executing raid, Joey walking point
- Explosion
- Loud noise
- Other men couldn’t see Joey, unclear on what had happened
- Rudberg fell and saw Joey’s uniform
- Explosion
- Joey’s body is gone from waist down
- Know he’s dead, call in KIA, carry him out
- Gathered belongings and silently walked to Humvee
- Joey placed on hood
- Bostick thinks about Micah, doesn’t talk to him til brother dies
- Troops salute the trucks at base, become emotional
- Body taken to the morgue, chaplain leads prayer
- Other soldiers cannot sleep
- Joey is placed in Black Hawk to be taken home, others salute