re: Signs of respect at funerals that you'll always remember

One of my Marines came back from a particularly rough deployment and EAS’d. He was a good kid with a lot of shite inside none of us could see or didn’t want to see. He apparently succumbed to the thoughts raging in his head a few years later.

A few of us traveled to his funeral and while sparely attended by family and a few friends when we fiollowed the casket outside to the hearse 17 “bums” stood in perfect honor guard formation outside the funeral home. I lost my shite and broke down.

Turns out he’d been living on the street along side them for the past year and change. All veterans from Vietnam to OEF. All dealing with their own demons. All there to honor a fellow warrior. The guilt pains me now but the tribute from them will be with me forever.