I Attended A Military Funeral Friday

I Attended A Military Funeral Friday

I'm quite sure that I have not ever attended one before. Of course, I've seen them in movies and on television news--but this is the first one that I have ever attended.

The husband of a friend of my wife served our country in Kosovo, in both Iraq wars, and in the Afghanistan war. She always worried that he would go off on a combat mission and not come home. He finally retired from the Air Force, took a nice safe job flying cargo...and died in a recreational plane crash. It's quite ironic--like Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union...dying in a traffic reporter helicopter crash in Los Angeles.

It was both sad (he was younger than me) and impressive in its pomp and ceremony, with four fighter planes flying overhead in the "missing man" maneuver. Walking through the Idaho Veterans' Cemetery, looking down at the grave markers, it was hard not to reflect on the enormous number of people that have served our country in uniform, and how many of them did their duty, came home, and got on with their lives.

Life is short. Don't waste it. Live every moment with your family as though you might not be here next week--because it could easily happen.