A WWII veteran living in Massachusetts named John Bernard Arnold III passed away this week at the age of 98. Arnold did not have any living relatives, so people started putting out the word that they needed pallbearers for the services, and hundreds of strangers showed up to pay their respects.
I really wanted to highlight this story because our entire country needs more of this. More respect for our history and for the people who came before us and shaped it. More respect for our veterans, our communities, and in the end, ourselves.
The people who went to this event make me proud.
FOX News picked up the story:
‘Nobody should go alone’: 1,500 strangers honor WWII veteran with no known familyThe mourners started arriving hours early — veterans in uniform, strangers clutching American flags, police officers lining the route — all for a Massachusetts World War II Navy veteran many feared would be buried alone.But when John Bernard Arnold III, 98, died May 6 with no known living family, a public plea from Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services sparked an extraordinary response, with roughly 1,500 people turning out Monday in Hanson, Massachusetts, to give him a hero’s farewell.”This veteran passed away with no known family to attend his services,” Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services wrote on Facebook. “Let’s send him off the way a veteran should be.”They did.Arnold’s flag-draped coffin was carried into Saint Joseph the Worker Church as strangers packed the church grounds outside, many of them having never heard his name before the call went out.”Nobody should have to go alone, I don’t care who you are,” funeral attendee Jim Pearce told WCVB.After the funeral Mass, a long police motorcade escorted Arnold to Cedar Knoll Cemetery in Taunton, where bagpipes played, veterans saluted, and American flags were handed out to mourners lining the procession.
More from WPRI News:
“I’ve heard nothing but great things about the man. He was well loved by everybody,” Hanover-Hanson Veteran Services officer Terrance O’Keefe said.The response was overwhelming, with O’Keefe estimating that 1,500 people attended Arnold’s funeral at Saint Joseph the Worker Church. Dozens more followed Arnold to his final resting place at Cedar Knoll Cemetery in Taunton, where he was given a sendoff fit for a hero.“The level of humanity out there, where people can come out not knowing who he was … is absolutely incredible,” O’Keefe added. “It shines a light on what we do as a society.”Cory Dufour, who’s also a veteran, told 12 News he didn’t know what to expect attending Arnold’s burial.“I came here blind,” Dufour said. “I was just willing to be a part of it — to give back and be there for a brother that sacrificed everything he had.”David Prescott, another veteran, shared a similar sentiment.“Once a veteran, always a veteran,” Prescott said. “We’re comrades, no matter what service you’re from. We all stick together.”“They’re all heroes,” he continued. “They fought for our freedom and God bless them.”
See some clips below:
We would be better off as a country if we paid more attention to things like this.
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
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