The Heaviest Flag

I have my Dad's flag.

It hurt a lot to see it on his casket.

My Father was always proud of his time as a Corpsman. The Marines he saved and the ones he could not. All of the Marines are his Marines. Till his dying day he cried for his Marines.

One of the Marines cried on that day not for Dad's loss but for the joy my Father would find on the other side.

It is a very heavy flag, but well worth it.
 
I've been to 2 full honors military funerals.
My wife's Uncle WWII veteran and his Son's a Vietnam veteran. Both within a year of each other.
I cannot keep it together when the flag is handed over.
 
Touching words, for sure...

I had a hard time at Dad's funeral and it was all I could do keep my composure as honors were rendered. Mom was presented the flag at the service, but a short time after the funeral she visited with a special memento for me.

She gave me the flag that was flown on the USS Epperson DD-719 when my Dad served on her in Vietnam. It was his most prized possession as this was the ship that loved the most out of his 28 year naval career.

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Schattenreiter said:
I have wished many times that we had gotten a flag for dad when he passed but it was sudden and unexpected. No time to think only grieve.
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We got our fathers. I am still pissed I lost the coolest picture of my father and a buddy sporting some heavy machine guns in Korea. Used to carry it in my wallet as a teen.
 
I'm not looking forward to receiving my Dad's flag. Not at all.
 
I’ve been to too many of these over my 30 year career. The sound of Taps playing sends cold chills through me and tears form in my eyes.
 
Slacker said:
I've personally presented at least 50 flags.
While it was a duty that needed to be done, it was not one I enjoyed.
The families were typically VERY appreciative of the professionalism and attention to detail that we demonstrated.
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Certainly not a job one looks fwd to but as you said it needed to be done and best done by someone who understands the weight of that responsibility than someone who doesn't care. I have seen a few presented and you can usually feel the professionalism displayed at these funerals. Thanks for a job well done.
 
My last job as a CAO was a young Soldier that had committed suicide. I wasn’t the guy that knocked on the door, I was the guy that came the next day to help. They get the door knockers gone and the family never sees them again unless a fellow Soldier goes with them. The funeral home had already dressed the body before I could inspect the uniform. Once on, it doesn’t come off. They hadn’t shaved him before embalming him and he’d had about a weeks worth of facial hair. The uniform was jacked up as it could be and we had brass coming to the viewing. Guess who had to climb into the casket for over 2 hours and fix patches, ribbons and brass!? That would be me! He was colder than a cucumber and I was sweating like a dog shitting simmon seeds! The didn’t shave him but clipped the beard. He was married but separated, had come from a broken family so mom and hubby, dad and wife, and all three groups wanted the awards! Well, good ole SFC Miller just slides down to the local Office Depot and had a couple color copies made and found some discarded certificate folders laying around my house, Volia! everyone happy (except the S-1. They chewed my ass for duplicating awards. I diplomatically told them to kiss my ass!)! Or as happy as they could be. Family happy, brass happy, I’m worn out! I had to go through the SGLI insurance, help pick out and deal with the gravesite, the funeral home, inventory all the equipment we could find and bag it up for turn-in, clean out his gear lockers, and answer any questions the family had. It was a long couple months!
 
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