Service for Marine 'rights a wrong' for family
By Jim McNally
Statesville R&L
Published: July 8, 2010
Next to his family and his country, Tommy Padgett loved the Marine Corps more than anything on earth.
"The Marines were everything to him," said his son, Thomas Padgett.
"And being a Marine," added Thomas' wife Amy, "just meant the world to him. He loved his country and he loved fighting for his country."
Indeed, Padgett pulled three tours of combat duty in Vietnam. And then, long after he retired from the Marine Corps, the former master gunnery sergeant requested to be placed back on active duty status after the terrorist events of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred.
"He was nearly 70 years old then," Thomas recalled. "But he still wanted to serve. They sent him a letter telling him he was too old."
But when Tommy Padgett died of natural causes two years ago in Mississippi, those who knew him best, and knew how profoundly Tommy Padgett's definition of himself was intertwined with the U.S. Marine Corps, were not able to make that fact clear enough to those overseeing his funeral.
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Service for Marine rights a wrong for family
This was my father-in-law. It took a while, but we got it done!
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