A Military Funeral at Punchbowl
Today I officiated at the funeral of a man who had been dead for seven years. His daughter and first wife had waited that long before they had been financially and emotionally ready to bring his ashes to Hawaii where they had last been a happy family.
The inurnment was at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, more commonly referred to as the Punchbowl Cemetery. This is one of the major national cemeteries for WW II Pacific casualties and Korean War dead, especially the unprecedented number of unidentified/unknowns from what has been called "the forgotten war."
Famous people are buried here. Many of the casualties from the December 7, 1943 attack on Pearl harbor, including many from the USS Arizona that did not sink with the ship, lay at rest in the central part of the cemetery. Nearby lie the bodies of famed WW II journalist Ernie Pyle (who was killed on Okinawa) and Hawaii-born Ellison S. Onizuka who perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986.
Although all ground plots are now filled or "owned," a limited number of niches have been built for cremated remains. Accordingly, grave-side burials are few and far between these days. An exception was recently made for Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay of Pearl City, killed last month (November 29) in Iraq. Someone graciously released their gravesite so he might be honored with burial here.
The man I trusted to "the care and mercy of almighty God" today had moved to Hawaii with his wife and daughter when he began his tour of duty in Vietnam, where he served with distinction. Upon his return he became the commander of the famed 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team which had earlier been redesignated as a Reserve Unit (and which has now been activated for deployment to Iraq in several weeks).
While in Hawaii he and his wife had been members of the church I now serve as Pastor. It was for this reason that I was invited by the family to officiate today.
Several former friends who had served with him in Vietnam and with the 442 (including one now a 2-star general) came to pay their respects. Several members of my congregation who had known the family back in the early 1980's also attended. There were full military honors with taps and the presentation of the American flag to his family. Two bagpipers from the Honolulu Police Department Bagpipe Band were present and played "Amazing Grace" and the well-known "Going Home" motif from Dvorak's "New World Symphony."
As always, I returned to my car by way of the area set apart for the several hundred graves marked simply, "Unknown-Korea." As always I felt tremendous emotion for these young American men who had perished so far from home, their identities lost, but their bodies laid to rest with respect and honor. Unknown, but not forgotten. As always, I paused at several of them to imagine the person whose mortal remains were buried their. I imagined where they might have been born, who their parents might have been, brothers and sisters, school and church, hopes and dreams, hobbies, interests and their final thoughts and emotions on the day they perished. As always, I offered a prayer of remembrance and gratitude to God for their lives and for the families that never had the satisfaction of knowing either the soldiers fate or final resting place.
One of the men in my church helps administer the forensic lab in Hawaii that tests remains of "unknown" soldiers and attempts to identify them by matching their DNA them with surviving family members. Remains of MIAs are regularly being identified from Vietnam, South Pacific Islands, New Guinea, Europe and many other places where lost planes, ships, previously unknown burial sites and other "hot" or "cold" war artifacts have been recovered.
The lab is also systematically testing the remains of those many Korean War unknowns buried in Punchbowl. Happily, they have identified many of them who, at long last, have been returned to their families and reinterred closer to home on the mainland.
In Arlington National cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington DC, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers bears these words, "Known but to God."
I shared those words today, pointing to the Korean War "unknowns" and then gesturing toward the remains of the one being inurned today. "Time and history may obliterate this cemetery someday," I observed. "But God will not forget any of them. He will not forget any of us. This is his promise to us in Jesus Christ."
Regardless of how my own life will one day end I, too, am comforted in knowing that God will remember me. My old body will "rest in peace" but, with a new body, I will be raised with Jesus to eternal life.
The inurnment was at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, more commonly referred to as the Punchbowl Cemetery. This is one of the major national cemeteries for WW II Pacific casualties and Korean War dead, especially the unprecedented number of unidentified/unknowns from what has been called "the forgotten war."
Famous people are buried here. Many of the casualties from the December 7, 1943 attack on Pearl harbor, including many from the USS Arizona that did not sink with the ship, lay at rest in the central part of the cemetery. Nearby lie the bodies of famed WW II journalist Ernie Pyle (who was killed on Okinawa) and Hawaii-born Ellison S. Onizuka who perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986.
Although all ground plots are now filled or "owned," a limited number of niches have been built for cremated remains. Accordingly, grave-side burials are few and far between these days. An exception was recently made for Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay of Pearl City, killed last month (November 29) in Iraq. Someone graciously released their gravesite so he might be honored with burial here.
The man I trusted to "the care and mercy of almighty God" today had moved to Hawaii with his wife and daughter when he began his tour of duty in Vietnam, where he served with distinction. Upon his return he became the commander of the famed 100th Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team which had earlier been redesignated as a Reserve Unit (and which has now been activated for deployment to Iraq in several weeks).
While in Hawaii he and his wife had been members of the church I now serve as Pastor. It was for this reason that I was invited by the family to officiate today.
Several former friends who had served with him in Vietnam and with the 442 (including one now a 2-star general) came to pay their respects. Several members of my congregation who had known the family back in the early 1980's also attended. There were full military honors with taps and the presentation of the American flag to his family. Two bagpipers from the Honolulu Police Department Bagpipe Band were present and played "Amazing Grace" and the well-known "Going Home" motif from Dvorak's "New World Symphony."
As always, I returned to my car by way of the area set apart for the several hundred graves marked simply, "Unknown-Korea." As always I felt tremendous emotion for these young American men who had perished so far from home, their identities lost, but their bodies laid to rest with respect and honor. Unknown, but not forgotten. As always, I paused at several of them to imagine the person whose mortal remains were buried their. I imagined where they might have been born, who their parents might have been, brothers and sisters, school and church, hopes and dreams, hobbies, interests and their final thoughts and emotions on the day they perished. As always, I offered a prayer of remembrance and gratitude to God for their lives and for the families that never had the satisfaction of knowing either the soldiers fate or final resting place.
One of the men in my church helps administer the forensic lab in Hawaii that tests remains of "unknown" soldiers and attempts to identify them by matching their DNA them with surviving family members. Remains of MIAs are regularly being identified from Vietnam, South Pacific Islands, New Guinea, Europe and many other places where lost planes, ships, previously unknown burial sites and other "hot" or "cold" war artifacts have been recovered.
The lab is also systematically testing the remains of those many Korean War unknowns buried in Punchbowl. Happily, they have identified many of them who, at long last, have been returned to their families and reinterred closer to home on the mainland.
In Arlington National cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington DC, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers bears these words, "Known but to God."
I shared those words today, pointing to the Korean War "unknowns" and then gesturing toward the remains of the one being inurned today. "Time and history may obliterate this cemetery someday," I observed. "But God will not forget any of them. He will not forget any of us. This is his promise to us in Jesus Christ."
Regardless of how my own life will one day end I, too, am comforted in knowing that God will remember me. My old body will "rest in peace" but, with a new body, I will be raised with Jesus to eternal life.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 10:57 PM
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