Four Veterans

I never knew William "Jack" Mitchell, John Davison, Robert Caughey, John Bissonnette. In fact, all I knew of them was that they had served their country, defending the freedoms we all enjoy, and that they died without anyone to honor them, to remember them, and to bury them. Hundreds of people came together from across New Hampshire yesterday to change that:

Four lifetimes of details died with the men who were interred yesterday at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery. Little is known about their families, their jobs or even the service that earned them full military burials, but that didn't matter to the hundreds of people who assembled in their honor.

They were veterans, three Army and one Air Force, and that was enough to draw other service members - retired, reserve and active duty - to Boscawen to bear witness to the passing of four nearly anonymous men. With flags and uniforms and prayers the crowd provided trappings common at memorials for casualties of a modern war.

I was proud and honored to be there to witness this moving tribute to four men who had been forgotten and will now be remembered.