I attended a funeral for a Marine yesterday.. Hard life succesful life...

As a child in the depression, his father bought an old circus trailer and had a family with six kids living in it in Philadelphia..Their story was featured in the then equivalent 100 neediest cases that the post runs.. The Child welfare people came and put the kids in an orphanage... The Dad finally scraped some bucks up and grabbed the kids in the middle of the night and escaped to Chicago with them.

George entered the Marines in 1939., He kept scrap books and meticulous service records... I don't know what all the medals stood for but there was a chit load of em...And his scrapbooks had pics from every island.

He served in Iceland. Then in the War served as an artillery spotter on Bouganville, the solomans, guam and went into Red Beach at Iwo Jima. The Shirt he wore on Imo Jima with Bullet holes was on display.. Two purple hearts on Iwo....

The legion tribute before the mass was nice.. The patriot guard was present and the Marine Corps Chaplain all had nice things to say...Apparently George would tell his stories to any and all who would listen.. The Legion guy said there aren't many left to tell the stories.

But the cool part of the ceremony is that George wanted to be buried in Arlington and didnt want Money to be an issue... HE started a fund when he retired... When he was moved to Hospice last week, he handed over the fund to his sons with directions that it be used to fly all his kids, grand kids and great grand kids to Arlington for the ceremony! Apparently there is plenty in the fund to cover all.

I dont know what the criteria is for an Arlington burial, but His son said it can be anytime in the next 5 weeks to 6 months.. they try to give three weeks notice...

Oh, and for a catlick funeral, they played the Marine Anthem as they took the casket out...the guy behind me was singing it....