Heroes - Continued

I normally would call today's post "The Outtakes" from the National Cemetery, but that would take away from the power of what these pictures captured during my morning of gratitude on Memorial Day in Dallas.....but I think they are interesting, so I wanted to share.

Here are some mounted cops in the cemetery - man, they really were beautiful horses and I just love seeing them. They also had a bagpipe player and that is just the BEST.

OK, so I am still human (and a 32-year-old single woman) - I was driving out and I saw these Marines gathered......and I had to take a picture of their hotness in uniform!

And the family members occasionally took some liberties with humorous inscriptions on the gravestones......this man was obviously a proud Texas A&M graduate - they put "Aggie" before Marine! HA!

And this stone I just loved - "I have finished my course."

Something they did at the visitors center was to give out flags to put next to graves (if you didn't bring your own). I didn't think of it at first, but then I went over and asked the man if I could have one to put on a grave that didn't have a flag. He gave me one and I went out into the rows of graves (and there are a LOT of rows) to find "my soldier."

How do you pick which soldier to give your flag to?? I didn't know what to do because I thought every single one of them should have one. I was hoping that my relatives in Minnesota at Fort Snelling had a flag on their grave. Maybe a random person put one there in honor of their service like I was doing in Dallas? I hope so.

Anyway, I found a grave and I just knew it was "the one." LANCE KORFF DREWES. The inscription just got me and I knew he was the type of guy that I wanted to honor with my flag.

It read: "Gentleman Daddy and Friend". Nuff said. He was my guy. Here is his gravestone with my flag to honor him.

I saw this at one of the rows of cremation graves - a Pepsi bottle! I really really hope that it wasn't just litter, but I don't think it was. It was sort of deliberately set in a specific place and I also noticed that it was opened and little bit was gone......as if they were sharing a Pepsi with their loved one and left the rest for their buddy. If that's the case, then I think I might cry, even just typing this and remembering it!

And this lady just struck me when I saw her. I took this picture with full zoom, so I wasn't standing close to her at all or disturbing her peace. But she looked both sad and comfortable all at the same time. I'm guessing that she was there visiting her late husband's grave, but for some reason, it just really moved me. It was like watching two people on a porch, passing the day away together. Wow.