Veterans' burials nonstop at national cemeteries
Despite handling burials at an assembly-line pace, the National Cemetery Administration has the highest customer satisfaction score of any federal government agency and any private sector company, according to the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index. It tops companies such as Heinz, Amazon.com, and Hershey's."...customer satisfaction"? I can't touch that!
"We are ever-conscious of the fact that with each family we get one chance to get it right," Tuerk said.
Part of streamlining the process involved holding services at committal shelters - open-air, gazebo-like structures - instead of graveside. Calverton has seven shelters; Western Reserve has two.
After taps, two uniformed members of an Army honor guard, wearing white gloves, perform the third and final ritual - the folding of the flag. They make each of the traditional 13 folds with precision as mourners look on in silence.
The flag was presented to Hale's wife of 36 years. She was seated on a bench in the front row.
"I feel so blessed to be an American and that America has furnished something like this for our soldiers. It gives you such a wonderful feeling," she said. "I feel proud."
A cemetery employee politely asked the mourners to leave the shelter so the next service could begin.
Men and women in dark suits and dresses, some holding hands or with arms around one another for comfort, climbed into their Fords and Buicks and slowly drove away.
"...we get one chance to get it right,"... for the relatives of the deceased. "...one chance to get it right,"... like we did with agent orange, and now depleted uranium poisoning from ordinance.
"...that America has furnished something like this for our soldiers". Yeah, I guess it gives ya a warm fuzzy feeling to bury soldiers. But we take what we can get.
