Ulysses “Dutch” Germany died this week. They held his funeral yesterday afternoon at Waterloo Cemetery. Dutch was a WWII vet, so the VFW was there to give him a rifle salute sendoff.
That is not automatic these days. It was rumored that Dutch had voted for Obama, so there were VFW members who voted against military honors at his funeral. It was Randall Nathan who counted the votes, though, and he claimed the majority was for rifles for Dutch, and no one wanted to argue with a preacher, even a retired one, for fear of being mentioned in a sermon.
All the undertakers had left the county for a conference at Kill Devil Hills, which accorded with their usual good timing according to Jenny Newland, so Jake Newland, retired undertaker, was pressed into service.
Dutch’s wife, Dutchie, wanted a dove release at the end of the service. Jake threw them into the air just as the VFW color guard came out of the beer tent and fired the somewhat raggedy rifle salute.
“Taps” was even more mournful than usual.
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