Moonwolf's Lair

This coming Saturday morning, December 12th, several thousand people won’t be home in the warm, cuddled up in their beds all comfy and toasty.

Instead, they’ll have made their way early that morning to Arlington National Cemetery, as well as other locations spread out across the United States, Iraq, and other foreign locations.

Silent Rest - Arlington 2008

This will see the final phase of the annual Wreaths Across America project to completion for the 18th year.

The trucks, carrying over 150,000 donated wreaths, are in transit as I write this entry, escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders, and many others – organizations and individuals.

It’s been a while since I was able to go on a PGR Mission, but thankfully circumstances have conspired to make them possible again.

Today, with the family’s permission, we were able to escort them to Arlington National Cemetery to lay to rest Specialist Michael Gonzalez.

Specialist Gonzalez hailed from Spotswood, New Jersey, and was assigned to the 340th Military Police Company in Baghdad. On August 28th 2008, he was killed by an improvised explosive device.

The first parts of the mission were carried out by PGR members in New Jersey itself. Four of them also escorted Specialist Gonzalez, his family and friends, to ANC today, driving all the way down.

Linked from CNN’s iReport section.

The iReporter who submitted it wrote:

I was standing in Arlington Cemetery in V.A when a huge storm was rolling in. I noticed these Air force soldiers standing so perfectly still. As the weather took a turn for the worse, these magnificent soldiers stood there ground. I was truly amazing to see them just standing there as the winds and rain were blowing tress and power lines over. WOW.

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