A Scene That Showed The Spirit of America

By Bart Daughterty

Recently, my fiancee and I had the honor and privilege of being part of the escort for Cpl. Jonathan Ayers, the Snellville [GA] soldier and Shiloh graduate who was killed during an insurgent raid in Afghanistan.

We, along with 165 other motorcycles in the Patriot Guard Riders, staged at the airport in Lawrenceville and formed a flag honor line on the tarmac as his flag-draped coffin was removed from the plane and presented to his grieving family and friends.

It was loaded into the hearse by a six-member military honor guard while all of the Patriot Guard Riders stood at attention, most holding large American flags in a ring around the plane and the family.

From there, each and every biker followed the hearse and the family for about 15 miles in a procession two miles long from the airport to the funeral home.

An honor to participate? Yes. And it is the very least we could do to honor this young man who gave his life for America - for you and me. But that is only a small portion of the story.

Photo by Benjamin Hager Dacula resident Catherine Jordan, left, 6, waves a large American flag as the funeral procession for Army Cpl. Jon Ayers, a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, makes its way down Ga. Highway 124 toward Snellville on July 19.

Along the route from the airport to the funeral home, the Lawrenceville police and the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department blocked off every intersection so that we could all - a group that stretched nearly two miles - proceed uninterrupted in our honor escort. But there is more. So much more.

En route, there were many, many groups of people - some small, some large. Old, young, grandparents with their grandkids, parents with their children, elderly people standing - some in small groups, others alone. Nearly every one of them held an American flag and stood at attention with their hands over their hearts as the long procession passed.

But there's more yet.

On the opposite side of the roads we took - most of which were four-lane divided highways, people pulled off to the side of the road and stood outside their vehicles, hands over their hearts, as the funeral procession for Cpl. Ayers passed.

Some even stopped their cars or trucks in the middle of the street and stood next to their car at attention, hand over their heart. No one, and I mean NO one, honked their horn to get the person in front of them going or out of frustration for being "held up." Not one single beep.

I would like to thank the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department, and especially the officers who provided escort to the grief-stricken family, and the Patriot Guard Riders for their time and service to the community. I am sure at least some of these officers were off duty at the time but chose, of their own volition, to donate their time and professional expertise to this mission.

How desperately I wish Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, John Murtha, Teddy Kennedy and a host of other Washington "surrender now" elites could have seen all of this today. I doubt it would have changed their minds, but it would certainly let them know how far out of touch they are with the American people and with reality.

God bless America, and may God bless soldiers and officers for their unselfish service.

Bart Daugherty is a purchasing manager in the building materials industry. He is a resident of Stone Mountain.

(If you care to write to the author of this piece, his email address is: tailgunnerkitty@yahoo.com.

SOURCE: www.gwinnettdailypost.com

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