Texas town turns out for orphaned veteran’s funeral
Funeral for USAF vet Joseph Walker (Photo courtesy Giovanni Capriglione)
Poe sends in word on how Texans respond when word goes out that a veteran is going to be laid to rest and there’s a fear nobody will show. Joseph Walker was a US Air Force veteran (’64-68) and apparently died without any friends or family. As he was laid to rest with military honors, hundreds showed up to send him off.
The Daily Caller reports;
The Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery was unable to locate any family members to attend services for a Vietnam Air Force veteran named Joseph Walker — so staff members charged with organizing his funeral made a public plea for attendance.
“We do not leave veterans behind,” they said.
Local reporters helped to raise awareness — and quickly caught the attention of some nationally-known figures as well. All of them had one simple goal: don’t let this veteran be buried alone.
Texas did not disappoint. Pictures poured in on Monday from people who attended Walker’s funeral, showing long lines of cars and crowds waiting to pay their respects to a hero.
Walker, who served in the Air Force from 1964-1968, including service in Vietnam, was buried with full military honors on Monday. By all accounts, his service was very well attended.
Category: Air Force
According to TAH, didn’t this funeral occur almost 3 years ago (January 2019) and was posted by our very own AW1Ed on TAH in January 2019 based on a tip by Poetrooper?
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=84683
Joe Walker died in November 2018 and was buried in January 2019.
Was this a mistake?
Reposts happen. Call it a reminder of a kind community gesture.
Sorry guys, Old Fart’s Disease strikes again. The story was on Daily Caller’s current page with no indication it was old news.
Except for being dated January 28, 2019…
🙄😖🙄😖🙄
Take heart Ol’ Poe, it’ll feel better when it quits hurting so bad. Let he has sent in a unproofread post chunk out the FIRST rock.
We also remembered the following up to that story…and it was not pretty: “Family of Air Force Veteran Almost Buried Alone Says They Weren’t Invited To The Funeral”: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/family-of-air-force-veteran-almost-buried-alone-says-they-werent-invited-to-the-funeral/269-13852477-7ee9-41e9-b8ad-6e4c3c04874e “Texans from near and far attended a funeral for a veteran who they thought would be buried alone. A member of Joseph Walker’s family wants to know why they didn’t hear about this funeral.” “Hundreds of people went to the funeral of Air Force Veteran Joseph Walker, who didn’t appear to have any family. But, it turns out he did, and they’re confused as to why he had a second one.” “Walker’s great-niece, Dana Williams, said he died from cancer and they already held a funeral for him back in December 2018.” “She thought he was buried weeks ago, but turns out he wasn’t buried yet. When she saw the service on Monday, she was grateful for the community’s support but she was also heartbroken because she said he was far from being alone.” “He’s not alone,” said Williams. “He has a surviving brother, two surviving brothers, he also has two surviving — a niece and a nephew — and my mom has six children.” “Williams said Monday’s funeral service, as nice as it was, left them blindsided.” “We had already had a service for him, so it was kind of shocking to see another one,” said Williams.” “They had no idea it was going to held.” “We very emotional about it,” said Williams. “It’s just very heartbreaking. I’m very upset, I’m very angry that our uncle was laid to rest again and none of his immediate family was there.” “Williams said they would have been there if they’d known and the last thing they heard from the funeral home was about payments to be made.” “There was no communication,” said Williams. “All I got from them was one phone call about a payment. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t try to reach us. They have all of our phone numbers.” “She said her uncle was the one handling the payments and if there was a problem that delayed Walker’s burial,… Read more »
Sheez! A double fuckup for ol’ Poe…😫😖😫😖
ninja,
Zing.
Good catch.
Reality, a LOT of dead folk have family,
but no one willing to pony up the min $800 for basic cremation.
New York City has a island full of them.
A century of dead folk, and no one to claim the stiff, and pay the tab.
And it’s been gettin’ a lot worse since 2020.
RIP.
Thank you PGR & others
I’m an undertaker now. I had the honor of burying an orphan Marine at a local National Cemetery. Due to restrictions imposed by the Coof, we couldn’t allow townsfolk in to help lay the Marine to rest, but I’ll give the Chaplain credit, he rounded up every employee he could find free at the VA hospital and Cemetery and with the Marine Honor Guard, we gave him a fitting send off.
My apologies, this happened last winter.