Posted on 01/11/2018 6:31:44 PM PST by PROCON
The casket sat at the front of the chapel, wrapped with an American flag, containing the remains of a soldier who had died seven decades earlier.
It had taken a long time to find Army Pfc. Lonnie B.C. Eichelberger - who enlisted at age 16 and died in World War II at age 20 - but the military had found him. And now, under a gray Texas sky, he was going to be buried in home soil. Descendants could feel a sense of closure. The mantra of "no soldier left behind" was going to feel true.
Soft music played through the chapel's speakers. Six members of an honor guard from Fort Sam Houston entered, their black shoes shining, their white gloves spotless. They gripped the casket and marched in sync, seven steps to the right and then out to the waiting hearse.
Cheyenne Eichelberger, dressed in a black suit and yellow tie, followed behind. He had never met the man - his great uncle. He hadn't even been born when Lonnie entered the military. But he knew the story. He felt a sense of gratitude and pride.
"It puts the final seal on the chapter of Lonnie's life," Cheyenne said.
This was a day, Cheyenne knew, his grandmother would have loved to see. She had talked to him some about Lonnie, her only brother; about how they had grown up in a farming family in China Spring, a rural Texas community outside of Waco; how Lonnie - a black soldier during a time of segregation - had been killed fighting but his body never recovered.
A limo awaited, and Cheyenne got inside. A family friend and a reverend accompanied him, as a did a military representative. T
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has been doing a phenomenal job in locating them in past battle zones from around the world, and identifying our MIA war dead through DNA evidence, and bringing them home.
Salute Sir!
Ping
It seems that even a liberal paper like the Houston Chronicle can put a decent story out there every so often.
(Still not a subscriber yet, though)
Ping. And salute.
May God Bless
RIP, Sir. Thank you.
Yes, very troubling.
When he’s not around to be exposed by a surviving POW still detained we will finally know the truth?
Welcome home soldier. Gods angels have taken you to his side years ago and today to his loved ones. Welcome home soldier, your duty has been done with honor. Rest in God’s glory.
Welcome home.
Ay ease Private Eichelberger you are home now. Thank you for your service.
Amen
RIP
Pfc. Lonnie B.C. Eichelberger USA
These stories always make me feel so proud of this country, and the men and women that make it such a unique country.
Thanks for posting.
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