Semper Fi
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My wife's uncle died this morning at 1000. It's been a short illness. He first started having significant pain three weeks ago, went to the ER and they said he had some spots on his liver and a lower bowel infection. He just saw an oncologist and had his liver biopsy last week, along with a PET scan.
He presented again to ER last Saturday with severe abdominal pain and was admitted. They rolled him over to hospice, and initiated palliative care, but he never left the hospital. To be honest, I think he knew something was wrong a few months ago, but I think he just shrugged it off and told a few lies to the family.
Caboose was an interesting guy. Joined the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Did one combat tour and volunteered to go back. Worked with mostly unexploded ordinance and booby traps.
He joined The Corps because he was like a lot of young men from a somewhat poor Southern family...The service seemed the best way to try to get started in life. When you're the twelfth child in the family (hence the nickname Caboose), just getting through high school can be an accomplishment. But being a Marine was a good fit for Caboose. All of his six brothers were big men...6'3" or better. Caboose wasn't a runt at 5'9" , but he had a lot of banty rooster in him. He loved The Corps.
After a couple hitches, some stripes, a wife and two kids, the Marines didn't pay enough to stay in. Sadly, Caboose mustered out and took a civilian job, but he did stay in the USMCR. Eventually retired from it.
In civilian life, he worked for the Louisiana State Prison system. Started out as a PFC guard, worked his way up to sergeant and was the "dog man". Caboose ran the bloodhounds and he was good at it. Retired from that job and went on to work security for a local hospital for several years. Never rich, he still managed to put his two children through college.
His only vices were smoking and drinking. He wasn't a heavy smoker, but he certainly drank his share of cold beer. I've worked with Caboose killing hogs or making sausage, when he'd crack the first one at eight in the morning, but in over forty years I've never seen the man drunk. Guess he picked up his drinking habit in the service.
Like all of my wife's uncles on her mother's side, Caboose was just a fun guy to be around. He loved a good funny story and wasn't above a practical joke. If we were sitting around a fire, watching a roast pig turn, it wouldn't be long before Caboose would pull his old, battered flat top out of the truck and launch into some old Hank tunes or maybe some Haggard. He wasn't the best musiciam, but enthusiasm can make up some ground on talent.
I reckon it will be a pretty big wake. Caboose was well-known and well-liked. Wouldn't be surprised if they buried him in his dress blues. I know he'd already bought his casket...
A country church cemetery burial with military honors. Taps for him and the folding of the flag for his widow. The smell of pork roasting in front of an oak fire. Too much food after the funeral, from too many good country cooks and a bunch of Caboose stories to be told.
You know, it's gonna be a good day...
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There's still a few of those brothers left. Some have gone on. None were what people would consider great men, but they worked their butts off, sometimes doing things the hard way, always trying to do the right thing and just enjoying life.
Popeye, Pookie, Boydeaux, Feller, Junior, Clyde and Caboose. Clyde was the oldest. Fought in WW2 in Patton's Third Army, later worked for the city and had a small farm. Boydeaux was a paraplegic...Worked as a lineman until an accident broke his back. Popeye worked offshore until he was hurt, then worked as a butcher and had a side business furnishing rodeo stock. Feller ran the maintenance crew at a large institution, later using his people skills as a small-time politician. Pookie worked off-shore and is a very active Shriner, even though he's now blind. Junior is known on the grounds of Angola as Walking Tall, for some legendary reasons.
The tales I can tell about Christmas morning rabbit hunts, boucheries, pig roasts, the time Popeye jumped through the window at the Goat Hide Chapel...Just all manner of everyday country life made better by the people you were with.
Life is just a series of stories. Those boys made a lot of good stories.
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DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
RIP. Will he be buried in a military cemetery?
No. He'll be buried in a little country church cemetery, where the majority of his deceased siblings are buried. He and his wife had been married just over fifty years and those grave plots were taken care of long ago. He wasn't going to a cemetery where she wouldn't be buried beside him.
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
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None were what people would consider great men, but they worked their butts off, sometimes doing things the hard way, always trying to do the right thing and just enjoying
Perhaps they were great men, as are many of us here. Depends how you define great.
Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.”
― William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents -
RIP. Will he be buried in a military cemetery?
No. He'll be buried in a little country church cemetery, where the majority of his deceased siblings are buried. He and his wife had been married just over fifty years and those grave plots were taken care of long ago. He wasn't going to a cemetery where she wouldn't be buried beside him.
You know, that question started me thinking...My MIl had eleven siblings, my FIL has eight. All of those folks married, all had children. Between all those couples, were only two divorces. One on MIL's side and one on FIL's side.
Of all their kids, very few of those are divorced. Sitting here, I can think of only five. The rest of us have been married forever (the wife and I will be 44 years in about a week, BIL has been married 41, SIL has been married 38 or 39).
Must be something in the water.
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My mom is buried with my dad in a military cemetery in Marion Indiana. She even died first. Not sure if that’s policy everywhere though.
I just looked up the policy for the nearest national cemetery and you're right. Spouses can be buried in those cemeteries. But the one closest is closed to new interments.
From their website:
The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite. Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis. Since there is no way to know in advance when a gravesite may become available, please contact the cemetery at the time of need to inquire whether space is available.
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A life well lived!
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Sounds like a real hell of a guy.
RIP, Marine.
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Sadly, I'm not at his funeral today. I've got a pretty good cold, so I decided not to pass it on. But my wife is playing for the funeral, torn up shoulder and all.
Some notes...
- They got his obit wrong, listing only one combat tour. The man writing up the funeral went to school with Caboose and he knew better. Tried to get the family to change it, but they said they weren't sure. Come to find out, he did do two. Even volunteered to go back again, but the Corps declined to send him.
Understandable, though. Even though Caboose was in the Corps and in the USMCR for forty years, and I've known him for 48 years, I've never heard him say a single word about Vietnam. Not one.
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He was supposed to have a Marine set of pallbearers, but a couple of them came down with COVID. Therefore, family will be pallbearers and a mixed service detail will fire the salute.
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They couldn't get everybody into the funeral home (that's a four estate room funeral home with at least a 200 seat chapel.
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Funeral is finishing up about now...The sheriff's department is lining up on the highway in full dress uniform. The sheriff will also furnish the procession escort.
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Caboose will be buried in a Marine blue casket, as referenced above. My wife said it's beautiful.
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Because he liked to cook (mostly smoking, roasting or barbeque) and he probably made thousands of pounds of smoked sausage per year, there will be a lot of pork at the meal after interment. I know of one guy smoking 100 pounds of pork. I'm sure there'll be a lot more.
Other than that, this is a big family, a lot of friends and it's going to be an old-time country potluck from people who can cook.
Sure wish I could have been there...
