Honoring My Friend And Fellow American

Quite early tomorrow morning I will be on the road to Virginia to take part in a unique ceremony. One that has been repeated tens of thousands of times. Time-honored, never changing.

I am buring a friend, colleague and mentor at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bob White saw some pretty hairy action in Vietnam, and later was a businessman and family man. He was a friend and leader. He is missed. He made it back from action, lived a full life before an insidious cancer attacked and took him in just a few months. He loved his time in SF, and was active with a Special Forces alumni chapter in Central Ohio, and was instrumental in the creation of the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor.

Joining me will be my good friend, and occasional TRL contributor, Jude Cuddy. We plan to be on the road by 4 am and in Arlington, Va. in time for the 1 pm ceremony. We will stay over another day to visit some Washington DC memorials, icons to important missions and symbolic of the importance of freedom that so many in this nation take for granted.

Others have communicated to me they wish they could come to pay their respects to this man they never knew, but for whom they had great respect based on what I have written. I wish you could come, as well.

Over the Memorial Day weekend several days ago, I struck up a conversation with another Vietnam veteran. We were talking about the nation, this gentleman's service, life, just a little bit of everything. I mentioned that, sadly, I would be burying a friend at Arlington later in the week. Politely, but insistently, he corrected me, saying my journey is nothing to be sad about.

Because I am going, he said, I pay HONOR to my friend.