bring your own shovel

[Oss]

Yesterday was the funeral for my uncle Dave, a WWII hero,


Marine top turret gunner in air corp in the pacific, shot down multiple times wounded multiple times
chosen in a nationwide search to be the chief electrical foreman building the World Trade Towers

A modest no nonsense man and a great role model.  

The Marines sent a bugler and honor guard. A jet passed overhead as taps played (coincidence?)
and another as the flag was presented to his son

The greatest generation.  he was 17 when he signed up. It was a life well lived

ALthough he had the hours, (Marines has to know how to do everything in the unit and he flew the boring parts while pilots rested before time to target arrived) as a Jew he was not given wings to fly altho they needed pilots in WWII



The reason for the title is as Jews we are bound to shovel dirt on the casket once it has been lowered into the ground.  The sound stays with you..............

We were not allowed to use shovels the men who dug the grave used because of covid fear

If not for a trowel in my brothers Mustang we would have been SOOL

If you have a funeral to go to and observe this custom please pack a shovel

Oss

[Bigwolf]

Evan,
My respects for your uncle and my sadness for your loss.  It sounds like you lost a true roll model.


Bigwolf

[f6john]

First I had ever heard of discrimination of Jews in the military. I have the utmost respect for all the WW2 vets of which my father was one. Your uncle sounds like an outstanding member of that special group of people who lived through a intense moment in time.

[Alien]

Ha’makom yenahem etkhem betokh she’ar avelei Tziyonvi’Yerushalayim

Ride Safe,

Alien

[Challenger]

Cool story Evan, sounds like a heck of a man! Sorry for your loss. I never questioned where the custom came from, but our family tosses one hand full of dirt on the casket. Funerals have been very weird around here since the invasion. Most are family only, some are drive by visitations. A good friend of mine was buried without even the family members at the cemetery. W.T.H.  

[Oss]

What Alien posted above translates as to

"May God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem").

Thank you gentlemen

[Jersey mike]

Oss, I’m sorry for your loss and send most sincere condolences to you and your family.

Your uncle was one of our country’s greatest generation and I have always had the utmost respect for them.

I’ve attended many funerals but have never experienced ceremony of shoveling dirt onto the casket but can understand how that sound can stay with you.

God Bless and Rest In Peace for your Uncle David.