Dear Mr. Cocchiarella,

I recently attended the funeral of CPL Tony Hebert in your state. I am an active duty U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado and was asked to assist the family. The SGT’s wife is the cousin of CPL Hebert and being friends with the SGT, I told him if he needed anything, just say so. A 16-hour drive (one way) is a bit of a task and he requested I go with him and help drive. A couple of days after that he informed me that the family invited/requested any soldiers that The SGT works with please attend. My 1SG gave me approval and I went.

It is never a pleasant experience to attend a funeral. I had heard of the events with those ignorant bastards from that church and had heard of your organization but never seen it for myself. Saw a couple of shots on the news during OIF1 and thought what a great thing and how unfortunate it is that it needs to exist. I had attended a few of funerals during OIF1, had funeral detail just after we came back from OIF1. Those events will burn themselves into one's memory forever and with it comes a sharpe emotion. I'm would guess that you are former military and know that as soldiers we are taught to carry ourselves aggressively, "bullet-proof" if you will. From that you know how unsettling it is to be reminded of your own mortality. Even though I did not know CPL Hebert, it was hard to handle the mixture of anguish and pride expressed by the Hebert family while I was there. The SGT told me just after we arrived in Winona that the Patriot Guard would attend. I didn't know what to think of it at first but became curious to see what would happen. The SGT told me that it had been reported that there would be protesters. Fortunately, none of those idiots did show up. As we drove up to the funeral home for the viewing I got to see what your organization does. The street and parking lot was lined with riders holding U.S. flags and opening the funeral home doors. I'm guessing there were roughly a 100 or so of them. That put a knot in my throat and almost made me cry. There are so many people in this country that are ignorant of how violent a world we live in because of how well soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have done their jobs that even in a dark moment, such as the passing of a young soldier, patriot pride explodes. I went around and shook every one of their hands. I couldn't say thank you to all of them because of that knot in my throat, but I wanted to. I thanked as many as I could.

The next day was just as moving. The whole Partiot Guard, there were more this time, lead the procession from the funeral home to the cemetery. Every drive way had someone standing in it. Many with flags, all with hats off. One business had shut down and all of its employees were standing on the grass, shoulder-to-shoulder with hats off and hands on their hearts. Then we arrived at the cemetery and the route was lined with girl scouts, cub scouts, boy scouts, and some other groups that I didn't recognize. The section of the cemetery was ringed with riders still holding their flags. Wow!

Then the Major General who present the flag and his Sargeant Major gave both The SGT and I unit coins and the MG gave the funeral detail unit coins too.

I am impressed with how your organization handled itself. I will be joining the Colorado PGR.

Please pass my thanks to all of your members.
Thank you.

Sincerely,
SPC James H