Fallen soldier returns home as "everyone's son"

A fallen hero becomes everyone's son when he returns home for the final time
By GREG JAFFE The Washington Post

Publication: The Day

Many in Woodstown, never knew the soldier killed in Afghanistan; but for a few moments, they pause their lives to think of him - and that distant war

Woodstown, N.J. - The silver hearse rolls out the main gate of Dover Air Force Base, where America's war dead return to U.S. soil.

"He's coming," yells John Davis, a 73-year-old retired electrician and Vietnam veteran. He and about 20 other bikers scramble for their Harleys.

Davis has a droopy gray mustache, a small soul patch and trifocals. He swings an artificial knee over his bike, drapes an ice pack over the nape of his neck and fires up his black motorcycle. The bikers pair off, forming a line leading away from the base. The hearse falls in behind them.

At 1:15 p.m., the convoy is heading north on Route 1 out of Delaware, toward the soldier's home town. The guttural rumble of the Harleys, softened by the hum of highway traffic, fills the air.
Most of the bikers don't even know the name of the soldier in the hearse.

Sixty miles away, in Woodstown, N.J., the three local employees of the John M. Glover Insurance Agency wonder why the police have posted temporary "no parking" signs on South Main Street. They check the borough of Woodstown's Web site to see whether there are plans to trim the trees in town. Then they notice the firemen hanging a big American flag between the ladders of their two trucks.

One of the agency employees, William Seddon, calls his son, a volunteer firefighter, to ask what is happening.

"The body of a soldier is going to come down the street later in the afternoon," his son tells him.

A fallen hero becomes everyone son