[Oe List ...] OE Digest, Vol 85, Issue 25 ""The Last Post" aka "Taps"

[Margaret Aiseayew]

This conversation comes to me as exceptionally interesting.  As a pastor it has been a concern of many families that someone have full military honors at their funeral.  This involves the presence of the military, the folding of the flag and its presentation, as well as Taps.  I participated this week in the funeral of “my rabbi.”  He has been one of my closest friends over the last 15+ years.  He often called me his pastor. His wife introduced me to the rabbi conducting the service as Norm’s girlfriend.

                Norm was very proud of his service in WWII. His WWII Veteran cap was placed in the casket with him.  The folded flag was given to Noreen  at the cemetery by the rabbi with the same words that are used by the military when they present a flag to the family.  There was no Taps.  

                I was deeply impacted by this Jewish funeral.  The service at the cemetery was not over until the grave was filled.  We all participated in doing this.

                Norm was exceptionally clear from his experience in the South Pacific on the horrors of war.  He was equally impacted by the discrimination within our own troops and in our country after the war.  One of his great gifts to me was a completely different window into that experience.  This included discrimination against him, about which I never heard any recrimination.  I grew up with no one talking about the war.  Once when I asked my uncle a question about his time in the South Pacific, my father pulled me out of the room and gave me a real talking to.  I have no recollection of what the question was and whether or not it may have been impertinent.  All I knew was that it was something we didn’t talk about.

                If it cannot be talked about, should it ever happen?  These experiences deeply shaped my attitudes throughout life.

Thanks for listening, Margaret

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