Thursday, June 2, 2011

A Tribute: what you don't hear.

A friend of mine forwarded this e-mail to me, and of course, being the skeptic that I am, I looked it up on Snopes.  While I am sure many of you may have known about this, THIS forward is actually true, and it needs forwarding.  I did some editing to insert the facts versus the embellishments that often come with e-mail forwards:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/monsoor.asp


The Sailor [in this story] is QM2 (Seal Team 3) Mike Monsoor (April 5th, 1981 - September 29th, 2006.)  Mike Monsoor was awarded "The Congressional Medal of Honor" in April 2008 for giving his life in Ramadi as he jumped on, and covered with his body, a live hand grenade saving the lives of two of his Navy Seal colleague.

During Mike Monsoor's funeral at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California, the six pallbearers removed the casket from the hearse, and lined up on each side of Mike Monsoor's casket were his family members, friends, fellow sailors, and well-wishers. The column of people continued from the hearse all the way to the grave site.

What the group didn't know is that Navy Seals were scattered among the column of people.

As the pallbearers carried the rosewood casket down the column of people to the grave site, the column would collapse which formed a group of people that followed behind.  Every time the rosewood casket passed a Navy Seal, he would remove his gold trident pin from his uniform, and slap it down hard causing the gold trident pin to embed itself into the top of the wooden casket.  Then the Navy Seal would step back from the column and salute.

Now for those who don't know what a trident pin is, here is the definition:

After extensive Navy Seals Basic training and then an additional fifteen weeks of advanced training, completed Navy Seals trainees are given their Naval Enlisted Code and the gold trident pin.  With this gold pin, they are now officially Navy Seals.

It was said that you could hear each of the slaps from across the cemetery.  By the time the rosewood casket reached the grave site, it looked as though it had a gold inlay from the trident pins that lined the top.


Memorial Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfK2BQCIIes

This Should Be Front-Page News instead of the garbage we read and hear everyday.

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