Letter: Homeless vet treated with honor

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Stanley Pidgeon Jr., a veteran of the Vietnam War and recipient of the Purple Heart, was recently buried in the Beaufort National Cemetery. A homeless vet from the Charleston area, he was not laid to rest alone. With him that day was a Marine Corps honor guard, a firing party, a bugler and 12 local veterans from the Disabled American Veterans and a Korean War veteran.

As the funeral service was coming to an end with the folding of the American flag, by coincidence Marine jets from the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort screamed overhead. We veterans smiled to ourselves. Not only was Lance Cpl. Pidgeon Jr. buried with full military honors, but he unofficially received a “flyover.”

So, a big “thank you” to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort for that beautiful “Sound of Freedom.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Letter: Homeless vet treated with honor."