“the daunting story of a soldier who bore one corner of JFK’s 1,300+ pound casket up and down the Capitol steps”
Memo: If you ever need a state funeral, just use an ordinary 50 lb. military casket. It’s covered with a flag and makes you one with the rest of the people.
Stories are legion about the trouble casket bearers have had with these stupdendous caskets—from Brezhnev to J. Edgar Hoover, to Kennedy, etc.
Not only do soldiers sometimes injure themselves, but the chances are good they may even collapse and drop the casket.
We are not ancient Egypt; and a 1300 lb. casket doesn’t do the job better than a 50 lb. one.