REMEMBERING ANOTHER WHO SERVED

Welcome back.  Let's think about Tommy Cagle.

I cannot recall how old I was when I attended Tommy Cagle's funeral at Sawyer Road Community Baptist Church on Signal Mountain in Tennessee.  I may have been ten or twelve.  

My parents encouraged me to go because he died serving our country in Vietnam.  I had no idea at the time that we were at war, nor did I know about Vietnam.  I must have been very young.

I never knew Tommy Cagle.  I do not recall how many people attended the church service.  I never met any of his family unless I was introduced at the funeral service.  If that is the case, it has long since been forgotten by me.

After four decades I do remember his name.  I do remember he was an American soldier who died in an American war.  

His was the first soldier's funeral this Tennessee hillbilly ever attended.

The only other thing I recall about the funeral was the closed casket.  I had attended funerals where the body of the person was laid in state so people could pay their last respects.  

Tommy Cagle's casket was closed. Something happened to him in Vietnam that prevented his family from letting the public see him one last time.

I do not recall what happened to Tommy Cagle.  I only remember his name, the little white church, and how terrible it all seemed to me then.

Blessings...