As most of you know, Capt. Scott Speicher was shot down on the first day of the Gulf War. He was lost for something like 18 years and his remains were just discovered back in August. Since he was from Jacksonville, FL, he was flown back here, and they had the funeral ceremonies here on base. Had I thought it through, I would have taken the boys to the base to watch the ceremonies because of course they were much more decorative on base than off, however, when I realized that today was the day of the funeral, we didn't have time to get over to the base, but the funeral procession was driving right by our neighborhood, so I loaded the boys up and drove a couple of miles to wait for them to pass. It was a great opportunity to talk to them about what it means to be a hero, what it means to defend our country and let them know that their Daddy is serving in the military - what a great heritage! They probably didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but at least it was a little exposure.
The people really came out in droves. I was amazed at how many people came out to line the procession route and pay their respects to this fallen hero and to thank him for serving our country. It really is fascinating to live in a "military town." I've never seen things like this before. I felt really funny taking pictures of the whole thing - it being a funeral procession and all - so there's not many pictures, and the ones I have are pretty terrible, but I wanted to be able to show Chris a few since he was working. .JPG)
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Did I ever tell you that he went to our church? I remember that we sang a special hymn for him the Sunday before he left, his family sat in front of us at early church every week and he taught Jason's Sunday School class. I'll also never forget when we got the phone call that he was the one missing.
The people of Jacsonville were very faithful in trying to get to the bottom of what happened to him.
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