I got this note from my sister Susan yesterday. She lives in Illinois along with her husband, who’s also named “Frank.” Unfortunately, his nephew was in Iraq:
I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but Frank’s nephew, Keith Nurnberg, was killed in action in Iraq last week. He was only 26 years old and his wife is pregnant, due in November. Keith was doing his second tour of duty in Iraq and was due to return home sometime in December.
The funeral was this weekend and was probably the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. They have this group called the Patriot Guard and they are veterans who have a motorcycle club. This group goes to every wake and every funeral of anyone killed in action. There were probably 100 of them. They ride with flags on their motorcycles and escorted the funeral procession to the cemetery.
I think I was doing just fine until I saw the little kids standing on the side of the road holding an American flag with their hands across their hearts. Then we went through Genoa City (a small town just south of Lake Geneva) where there are only about 50 houses in town. Each and every house had an American flag out front and all of the residents stood there while the procession went through. It was unbelievable. When we got to the cemetery (which was way out in the middle of nowhere) there were flags lining the entire roadway into it. The Patriot Guard stood at attention during the entire ceremony in a circle around family and friends. They also directed traffic and made sure that everyone truly felt their pride in being there. I can’t believe how amazing it was. We thanked a few of the people when we were leaving and they just said they were proud to be here to honor the family in their time of grief. If that doesn’t clutch your heart I don’t know what will. To say it was a somber event is an understatement.
