Vietnam Veteran Saluted Lonely Hearse Carrying Veteran

Fairfield man salutes solitary veteran on way to cemetery
Daily Republic
By Todd R. Hansen
July 04, 2017


“And I don’t know what made me do what I did next. But I was thinking he was a veteran and alone, and that’s just wrong,” Cobb said.

Vietnam veteran Mike Cobb.

(Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic)

DIXON — For U.S. military veterans, especially for those who served in combat, patriotic markers are not just dates on the calendar.

In fact, Vietnam veteran Mike Cobb, who served in the U.S. Army infantry, much of his time as a tunnel rat, is not likely to be seen at any of the special holiday services.

“I’m not ready to go to those things. There are a couple of friends from Fairfield who died (in Vietnam). I’m not ready,” said Cobb, who was in country in 1969-70.

So a week after Memorial Day, and less than a month before the Fourth of July, Cobb found himself honoring someone who had served his country on a day that had no commemorative significance.

Cobb was returning from Sacramento on June 7 and came upon a solitary hearse on Interstate 80.

“As I passed it, I noticed a coffin with a flag on it, so I knew it was a veteran,” said Cobb, 67, a Texas native who has lived most of his life in Fairfield. “But there was no procession behind it . . . and (the hearse) was going about 65 mph, and that’s just not a funeral.”

So Cobb sped up ahead of the hearse and pulled off at Midway Road, and waited. And when the hearse pulled off, too, stopping at the stop sign, Cobb drew to attention and saluted the veteran en route to his final resting place.

Cobb said the hearse driver sat there for 10 minutes or so before driving on.
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