I am exhausted. We went to our fourth funeral in the past two weeks. Today's funeral was for a 57-year-old who had colon cancer. He was an ag pilot and fire department chief. I thought I would be okay until we walked into the cemetary and two fire trucks on opposite sides of the road had their ladders extended and touching at the top to form an inverted > with the point at the top. Crossing from one fire truck to the other and making an "A" was a cable from which was flying the American Flag. Very touching. So many police officers, federal government employees, and firefighters formed one group facing the family members. Then two fire trucks entered the cemetary, one being a really old fire truck with their antique bell. On the back platform where the firemen used to ride, was the casket. At the end of the funeral, ten ag pilots flew in "the Missing Man Formation." Reggie's plane was flown by a family member who then turned toward the west away from the rest of the formation. (Wikipedia explained it: The flight approaches from the south, preferably near sundown, and one of the aircraft will suddenly split off to the west, flying into the sunset. In all cases, the aircraft performing the pull-up, split off, or missing from the formation, is honoring the person who has died, and it represents their departure to the heavens.) Kelly was presented with Reggie's captain's helmet. Not many eyes were dry today. Then the interim captain rang the antique fire bell, signifying the "last call." (This was explained on Wikipedia: During each firefighter funeral, there is the ceremony of the "Tolling of the Bell," where bells gong in a succinct and traditional pattern. The bell ceremony is reminiscent of the original firehouse bells that tolled when there was a fire. The actual ceremony is based upon the pattern of the original method of communicating that a firefighter had fallen, which is the telegraph. The telegrapher would tap out the word "fell" with five measured dashes, a pause and then repeated two more times.) As I said earlier--very touching.
