John W. Mele: A Short Story

When I was ten years old my mother sat me down to inform me that I had an older brother that I didn’t know about. From the day that I met him he became one of my best friends. His name was John W. Mele we had different fathers but that didn’t matter. John came to visit us one day and he told me he was joining the Army. He went off to complete basic training, and advance individual training to become a 12B. Once his training was done and he was stationed at his first unit he came to visit me again. From that day forward I knew I wanted to join the Army and follow in his footsteps. So when I turned eighteen I did exactly that I joined the Army and became a 12N.
I was in the army for about two years when I went on my first deployment to Iraq. …show more content…
It was like everything I was thinking of just disappeared, and all I could think about was how happy I was to see her. However it didn’t last long because when we reached the car the feeling and emotions hit me all over again. The funeral wasn’t for a few days so I spent the time preparing my uniform and trying to think about what I was going to say to his wife and daughter when I seen them. My brother was being buried in Arlington Cemetery so my wife and I had to fly to Arlington Virginia to attend the funeral. The day of the funeral the Casualty Assistant Officer picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the cemetery. When we walked into the memorial room it became completely silent as people stared at us in grief. I have never had so many people walk up to me and tell me I look just like him. We waited in that room a while until the Chaplain came in a said a prayer. Then it was time to go to the grave site and burry my best friend, my brother. When we got to the gravesite everyone began to sit down in their chairs as they waited for the ceremony to begin. By the time everyone had got up and said what they wanted to say there wasn’t one dry eye amongst us. Then the funeral detail started to fold the American Flag. The first flag was presented to his wife and daughter, and the second flag I was presenting to my mother. As I took the flag from the Non Commission Officer of the detail I did an about face and walked over to her. Once I was in front of her I began to kneel down to one knee and I said to her that he is in a better place and I promise everything will be okay. Then I stood up and saluted her as the tears were rolling down her face I then walked away. As we started to leave the cemetery I thought to myself that this was the hardest day of my life. Not only had I just buried my brother, but I also had to start preparing myself to redeploy to Iraq. I also had to tell my