A Soldier's Last Ride Home (The Heart of America)

1 May, 2003

[Happy2BMe]

I want to tell you of an experience I had last night flying home from Atlanta.

The pilot came on the intercom and went through the usual announcements telling us that "we're just east of Montgomery cruising at 28,000 feet" and "you've picked a beautiful night for flying, just look at the gorgeous southern sunset out of the right side of the plane".

He then, however, said this: "Please bear with me as I deviate from the script, but I want you all to know that simply by coincidence you have been granted both the privilege and honor of escorting the body of Army PFC Howard Johnson, Jr. home tonight. PFC Johnson was killed in Iraq defending the freedoms we all enjoy, and fighting to extend those freedoms to the people of Iraq.

We are also accompanied by PFC Johnson's cousin, Marine Major Talley, who has been chosen by the family to escort PFC Johnson home. Semper Fi!"

The plane quickly became very quiet, but soon erupted in thunderous applause that lasted for several minutes. It was quite moving, to say the least.

As I sat there thinking about what the pilot had said, and visualizing PFC Johnson's dead body riding below me in the belly of that plane, I noticed a couple of things. Two rows in front of me sat a father holding his daughter, an infant, and they were practicing "ma-ma" and in the row behind me was another young boy, probably 2 or so, learning to count to 10.

Now obviously both are too young to realize we're at war, or that one of our dead was with us, but it made me think, and this is the point: These warriors, mostly young, all volunteers, everyday are prepared to give their lives for our future, for a safer, more secure future for people they don't even know, all based on the principle that fighting and dying for this country is worth it. You all know and agree with this, but not everyone does, so I would ask that if you meet anyone that's not "on board" with this philosophy, i.e. the protesters to which Bob refers, that you "correct the situation".

By the way, the flight ended with all of us deplaning only to line the windows of the gate house to watch PFC Johnson's body, draped in the American flag, be roll ed out of the plane and into a waiting hearse that was surrounded by his family members.

Please pray that our soldiers' sight is acute, their aim is true, and that as many come home as God can spare.

Andy Nelson, Montgomery, Alabama 36104

[Happy2BMe]

It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press.

It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.

It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate.

It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!!!

"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen."

[CheneyChick]

Thanks for posting this.

CC

[maeng]

Thank you for sharing this with us. What an honor you must have felt. God Bless all who have fought and who have given all for this country.

[Zavien Doombringer]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/johnson.asp

This was Taken from Urban Legends, or Snopes.com

The origins are not known or if the details are accurate. I do know that with my experience working with American Airlines for almost 5 years as a Lead Ramp Agent, Human remains are never loaded when the public is in view, nor are they off loaded in view. The passengers are never told that there is a "body" in the aircraft cargo compartment. This would be against policy! We had a code name for the human remains so if we needed to speak about the deceased, we had a name for them. I would have to say the Pilot and crew acted out tof the SOP and need to be reprimanded. NO matter how Patriotic he felt, there are still some onboard that would feel uneasy about a body on the aircraft.

[Zavien Doombringer]

THIS IS NOT YOUR POSTING!!! PLEASE SHOW YOUR SOURCE!!!

[cav68]

Now that's a trbute anyone would be proud to be a part of

[Happy2BMe]

Thanks - but the writer is reportedly this person (not me):

Andy Nelson 746 Adams Avenue Montgomery, Alabama 36104

[Happy2BMe]

Calm down man - easy! Take a chill pill.

[Zavien Doombringer]

It is posted as if you wrote it. I am sorry if I come across a bit anxious. However, the origin and the details are not known, this letter has been floating aroung the internet for about a month plus...again with my experience in the Airline industry, this would not have happened.

[Happy2BMe]

No probs - I guess to completely confirm it, we would have to talk to the Major (cousin) escorting the body. Thanks for your input!

Mobile mystery e-mail circulating the globe

Montgomery man is searching for author of message slugged 'final flight'

04/24/03By CASANDRA ANDREWS
Staff Reporter

Last week, Andy Nelson received an e-mail at his office in Montgomery about U.S. Army Pfc. Howard Johnson II of Mobile.

The electronic message talked about events on a flight from Atlanta to Mobile that carried the body of the young soldier killed in Iraq.

The author gave a detailed description of what the pilot said about Johnson, a family member traveling with the body, and the boisterous applause that followed. The writer also made observations about two children on the plane and offered personal thoughts about America's role in the war.

The words stirred Nelson to action.

Instead of tapping the delete key, he cleaned up the top of the note, eras ing addresses and forward information, then added his own name, business address and phone number at the bottom -- like he always does when he sends an e-mail.

Then, with a few more keystrokes, the construction company project manager set off a chain of events he likely could never have anticipated.

Somehow, as the words were transported from coast to coast and reader to reader, the message was slightly altered.

Nelson thinks the author's name was deleted and his own name remained at the end, making it look like he had written the moving story about coming home with the fallen soldier on his final flight.

Within hours of sending the message, the phone calls started.

Then the faxes came.

By last Friday, Nelson had received about 60 calls, more than 10 facsimiles and an Easter card in the mail from someone who read the story online.

"I wish I would have been able to write it," he said. "I didn't."

Since then, he's been trying to find the mystery man who penned the heartfelt message. Nelson thinks the author is a man who lives in Mobile. He even called the Mobile Chamber of Commerce looking for clues.

Sports pundit Paul Finebaum talked about the e-mail on his radio show. Nelson said he called him afterwards, so Finebaum would know that he wasn't the one who wrote so eloquently about Pfc. Johnson.

The soldier served in the 507th Maintenance Company, based at Fort Bliss, Texas. A convoy of the 507th was ambushed in southern Iraq last month after taking a wrong turn. Johnson and another soldier were killed, apparently during the initial firefight.

The Mobile native, Alabama's first known casualty of the war with Iraq, was buried April 6 at Gethsemane Cemetery in Mobile.

Five days after the funeral -- and nearly a week before Nelson received the e-mail -- Leigh Perry Herndon, vice president of communications for the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, received the electronic note.

Not one to forward e-mails, Herndon made the decision to send the message to her staff. "I was just touched by it," she said. "It brought the war home ... it meant a lot to me."

After passing it on in her office, Herndon said she has been contacted by several people, including Nelson in Montgomery and someone overseas.

Pfc. Johnson's father, the Rev. Howard Johnson, said Wednesday afternoon that he hadn't seen the e-mail and didn't know who might have sent it.

Nelson said he took so many calls about the e-mail that he started answering the phone at work "I didn't write it."

He's had telephone conversations with pastors, grandmothers and family members of those serving in the military from spots as far away as Alaska and Connecticut.

"A lot of preachers have called who wanted to use it in their sermons," Nelson said. "Everyone who's gotten it has been choked up."

The attention has been somewhat troubling, Nelson said, because he doesn't want anyone to think he's trying to take credit for someone else's thoughts.

"I think it needs to get out who he is," Nelson said. "You want to give credit to whoever wrote it."

Final flight

I want to tell you of an experience I had last night flying home from Atlanta.

The pilot came on the intercom and went through the usual announcements telling us that "we're just east of Montgomery cruising at 28,000 feet" and "you've picked a beautiful night for flying, just look at the gorgeous southern sunset out of the right side of the plane."

He then, however, said this: "Please bear with me as I deviate from the script, but I want you all to know that simply by coincidence you have been granted both the privilege and honor of escorting the body of Army PFC Howard Johnson, Jr. home tonight. PFC Johnson was killed in Iraq defending the freedoms we all enjoy, and fighting to extend those freedoms to the people of Iraq. We are also accompanied by PFC Johnson's cousin, Marine Major Talley, who has been chosen by the family to escort PFC Johnson home. Semper Fi!"

The plane quickly became very quiet, but soon erupted in thunderous applause that lasted for several minutes. It was quite moving, to say the least.

As I sat there thinking about what the pilot had said, and visualizing PFC Johnson's dead body riding below me in the belly of that plane, I noticed a couple of things. Two rows in front of me sat a father holding his daughter, an infant, and they were practicing "ma-ma" and in the row behind me was another young boy, probably 2 or so, learning to count to 10.

Now obviously both are too young to realize we're at war, or that one of our dead was with us, but it made me think, and this is the point: These warriors, mostly young, all volunteers, everyday are prepared to give their lives for our future, for a safer, more secure future for people they don't even know, all based on the principle that fighting and dying for this country is worth it.

You all know and agree with this, but not everyone does, so I would ask that if you meet anyone that's not "on board" with this philosophy, i.e. the protesters to which Bob refers, that you "correct the situation".

By the way, the flight ended with all of us deplaning only to line the windows of the gate house to watch PFC Johnson's body, draped in the American flag, be rolled out of the plane and into a waiting hearse that was surrounded by his family members. Please pray that our soldiers' sight is acute, their aim is true, and that as many come home as God can spare.

[Happy2BMe]

Pilot of commercial airliner makes announcement that the flight is carrying the body of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

Origins:   It's not clear what aspect of this item people are seeking confirmation of when they ask if it's "true," but we'll give it a shot:

• True: Howard Johnson was a 21-year-old Army PFC from Mobile, Alabama. He was assigned to 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas, and he was killed in action during an ambush near Nasiriyah, Iraq, on 23 March 2003.
  
  
• Likely: Since PFC Johnson was from Alabama (and was buried on 6 April 2003 at Gethsemane Cemetery in Mobile), it's not improbable that his body was carried on a commercial flight from Atlanta to Alabama, that the pilot of that flight made an announcement to that effect, and that many passengers on the flight responded to the announcement with reverence and appreciation. (The message quoted above often carries the signature block of an Andy Nelson, but he was merely a forwarder of the message and not its originator.)
  

[Zavien Doombringer]

No probs - I guess to completely confirm it, we would have to talk to the Major (cousin) escorting the body. Thanks for your input!

Well, call me skeptical...When there is casualties of war, there is a selected group of Airmen, Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors that escort remains to the final destination. Most are enlisted. Officers are designated to inform the family of the deceased. It is unlikely that the family can make such a request for a cousin to escort during the situations at hand. The Cousin may meet with the escort at the final destination and take posession. During War, I would suspect that a Marine Major wouldn't be escorting HR, even if it is a cousin.

It is a moving piece of literature, if it happened, it happened. Let's see others from the flight confirm it. An average flight in an MD-80 (there realy isn't anything smaller that can handle a casket and tray)holds up to 135, surely someone could confirm this.

I have a problem with stories like this just being concocted with no meat to it. I want truth.

Again, if I am wrong, I am wrong and will appologize to all involved. I am just really skeptical of internet mail that bogs down my mail servers ( I am a Network Admin)

[Happy2BMe]

"Well, call me skeptical...When there is casualties of war, there is a selected group of Airmen, Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors that escort remains to the final destination. Most are enlisted. Officers are designated to inform the family of the deceased. It is unlikely that the family can make such a request for a cousin to escort during the situations at hand. The Cousin may meet with the escort at the final destination and take posession. During War, I would suspect that a Marine Major wouldn't be escorting HR, even if it is a cousin."

When I err, I like to err on the side of skepticism. However, I've had more than twelve years in dealing with Mortuary Affairs in the military (it was an ancillary duty) and I can tell you from first-hand experience it is entirely within DoD guidelines to have a NOK (next of kin) from another branch of service accompany the remains to the interment site.

Happens all the time.

The military makes every attempt to comply with the desires of the next of kin in times of bereavement - even to the extent of intercooperation between the various branches of the Armed Forces.

There is no need for any apologies on anyone's part.

[itsLUCKY2B]

This letter was written to members of the NY State Police and

Syracuse Police who participated in an impromptu ceremonial escort

for a soldier killed in Iraq.



On Thursday, April 17, 2003 you participated in an Escort Detail for

GREGORY P. HUXLEY JR who was killed in action in Iraq on April 6, 2003.



On behalf of the entire Huxley family and from me, personally "Thank

You Very Much". The sincere dedication and emotions that you displayed meant so much to the Huxley family, that words cannot describe their feelings at this time.



What most did not know was that the US Army had promised the family members that they would be taken to Dover, Delaware to be present when their son arrived from Iraq and there would be a full military ceremony in

Dover for GREGORY. Unfortunately, there was a communication problem and they were not present during that ceremony. Then they were informed that the body of their son was being flown to Syracuse and that the funeral director could pick up the "fallen soldier" at the cargo area of the airport and that somebody would help them remove the casket from the cardboard shipping container for transport to Boonville, NY. That was found to be totally unacceptable for a nineteen year old kid that gave his life for this country and for the freedom of so many others. As a family friend, the funeral director contacted me to see if anything could be done. We now had six hours before GREGORY arrived in Syracuse.



Phone calls were made to SP North Syracuse, SGT Nick Harmatiuk took over from here and what you participated in and observed the rest of that day

was truly an outstanding display of what this agency can do in very short time. What happened, was just overwhelming.



From SP North Syracuse the procession left, led by eight Syracuse PD

motorcycles, followed by the hearse, four cars with family members

followed by ten State Police and Syracuse PD cars. How ironic it was that when the procession was traveling parallel to the runway, the plane carrying GREGORY landed next to use. We were able to enter the plane's cargo and rid his casket of the shipping crate and drape the American flag over it. When the casket traveled down the conveyor belt, fifteen New York State Troopers and the same amount of Syracuse Policemen lined the path to the awaiting hearse. All came to attention and saluted as six State Troopers carried the flag draped coffin towards the hearse.



After a short prayer, the family was given some time to welcome their son home. The entire airport was so quiet, I looked up at the windows of the concourses and saw a hundred people there, all standing, watching, with their hands over there hearts, saluting a young man that they did not know. Somehow they were told, that a fallen soldier had come home and they wanted to share the moment with us. The casket was then placed in the hearse and the procession left the airport in the same fashion as we arrived, only this time with a young hero that our hearts will never forget.



The motorcade was escorted to the Thruway entrance by the Syracuse

Police Department's motorcycles, all traffic was stopped for the procession and we headed east towards Boonville. After getting off the Thruway, at every intersection that the procession encountered we found that it had been blocked by more State Troopers, allowing safe passage with no interruptions. As we traveled through these intersections, every State Trooper, stood at attention, saluting the fallen soldier and his family, honoring GREGORY, giving him and his family the sincere respect, and thankfulness that they deserved. How emotional that was to see and to reflect on now, words cannot describe what that was like. When entering the Village of Boonville, the main street was decorated with so many American Flags and yellow ribbons. As we approached the center of town, all of the church bells began to chime at once. Hundreds of people were there, lining the street, all holding American Flags and all of them weeping for GREGORY and for what he sacrificed, for us and his country.



As we drove by the village park, the National Anthem was being played, for GREGORY, and I think, for us. At the funeral home, eight veterans lifted the casket out of the hearse and into the home with the family. GREGORY had arrived back in his home town.



I give you that description of events as not all of you took part in the entire process and I feel that you needed to know. I also think that you need to know what GREGORY'S family said to me, later. The images of the six State Troopers lifting their son, in his flag draped casket off of the airplane, of all the State Troopers standing at attention, saluting their son, of the State Troopers standing on the street corners, at attention and saluting, honoring their son, of the State Police escorts from Syracuse to Boonville, these sights, and now their memories will always be etched in their hearts, forever.



But the one memory that will always be there first, was of the State Troopers standing at the airport, standing at attention, saluting, with tears running down the troopers cheeks, for their son, a fallen soldier, a hero, that those Troopers never personally knew.



Our jobs take many different avenues in life, we hope that during our day, or shift that we have made a difference, a positive attribute. Well, on Thursday, April 17, 2003, you did just that.



You let an entire family know, that you cared, that you were sincere

in your caring and the thanks that you displayed for GREGORY and his family. Their words to me about you, told me just that. We made a

difference yesterday, and we did in style. The rewards we receive for

details like this one you participated in do not come from anywhere but from your heart, take pride in what you accomplished yesterday because you accomplished so much. I have had so many good things happen since I have been a State Trooper, but in the twenty fours years, I have never been prouder of the New York State Police as I was yesterday.



A fallen soldier, a hero, a son, a brother has finally come home, in grand deserving style, thanks to you



Sr/Inv Jack Graham

[Happy2BMe]

Good story. As I said, it all comes down to the wishes of the next of kin as to how the ceremony will unfold.

I have buried literally hundreds of veterans at military honors funerals and the variations can be quite numerous.

As for escorting remains, it is the duty of the escort to accompany the deceased throught entire journey and (depending on the family's wishes) even up to the point of interment.

As for military honors at the point of interment, these are granted on a time-sensitve basis depending on the location of interment and the distance to the nearest military installation providing military honors.

I salute the police officers for their meritorious contributions and efforts in their part of the interment ceremony - very memorable and all sterling examples to the family and the memory of those fallen in service to their country.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Wow, That's another "toucher"!!!

[TonyInOhio]

You'll enjoy this touching story from Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal today:

A Marine Comes Home: Fallen warriors remind us why whiny celebs are irrelevant

[usmcnightwalker]

thank you very much for posting that. as i read it i could not help but start crying. i recently decided to join the marine corps to serve this great country and i can’t find the words to express how grateful i am that there are ppl like you and Happy2B who post things like this that honor not only our fallen soldiers overseas but all soldiers and police (can’t forget firemen) who give their lives to protect us and keep this country exactly what it has been for the last 240+ years...FREE! Thank you very much.