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Corin, your post reminded me...

update on the (lack of) military honors for my grandpa's funeral. PE wrote a letter, as you know, to our Congressman, Sam Johnson. An official investigation was begun, and I made several phone calls to verify my information for those handling the investigation. From the funeral home, I got name and rank of the contact here at NAS/JRB Fort Worth. PE added that info to his letter and forwarded it to the Congressman's office.

All that said, the Navy called PE at work to apologize. I asked him *who* it was that had called, and he said it was none other than the petty officer with whom the funeral home was in contact. It was not the funeral home mess up but a royal FUBAR on the part of the Navy (I could have toldya that without an investigation). PO1 *** will be sending the family letters of apology, and has offered to hold a ceremony at our bidding.

I am pretty peeved about the whole affair, since having been on the other side of this (bestowing honors) before, I *know* there is no excuse for what happened. The petty officer said that he had the entire packet prepared and ready to go, that somehow, it was missed. The guard had the time of burial, the location of the cemetery, the flag was ready, they had directions to get there, everything was set to go.

I have talked to my mother about this. I have an idea, but we agreed that we will have to talk to the rest of the family before making a decision. My idea is that since there is virtually no way to get the family together again this soon after the funeral (without another death in the family), we should wait until Labor Day weekend when we KNOW everyone will be present. We have an annual family reunion that weekend, everyone who will be at the reunion, was at grandpa's funeral. The people are already planned, and the event is set in stone. The only thing to set would be the Plan of the Day.

(Plus, that is also the weekend before PE & my first anniversary :-) )