Ralph Lambert, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, died Feb. 8 in Louisiana at the age of 94, KALB reported. Sadly, he had no friends or family to attend his funeral.
Lambert served his country for more than twenty years, from 1950 to 1971, and it seemed heartbreaking to imagine that the vet would be buried with no one around to honor him.
But when a local high school baseball coach, Jordan Marks, heard about the veteran’s situation, he stepped in to help. He recruited six members of his team, all seniors at Menard High School, to attend the funeral and carry Lambert’s casket.
For this coach, it was not only about honoring a veterinarian but also teaching his students valuable life lessons off the field.
“I try to teach them baseball, but also the game of life, and anytime we can serve a community member or especially somebody that served for our country, we are more than happy to do it,” Marks told KALB.
On the day of the funeral, the six seniors – Ashton Veade, Cameron Kinder, Jacob Giordano, Jackson Ford, Ashton Brodnax, and Hunter Foster – carried the vet’s flag-draped casket, seeing Lambert off as he was buried at Central Louisiana Veterans Cemetary.
And even though they didn’t know the veteran at all, it was still an honor they will never forget.
“It was an honor for us, seniors, to be able to go out there, especially with somebody with no family and friends,” Jacob Giordano told KALB.
“I felt sorry, and I just am glad that we got the opportunity to go out there,” said Cameron Kinder. “We all have our family and friends, but I think we fail to realize that somebody out there doesn’t have that.”
Stories like these are not uncommon: the sad reality is that some veterans die alone and are denied the right to a funeral with military honors. Veterans organizations across the United States, such as the Missing in American Project, work to identify unclaimed veterans and see that they get rightful send-offs.
No veteran deserves to be buried without someone by their side — and thankfully, this vet didn’t, thanks to the kindness of six caring high school seniors.
Thank you to these seniors for paying respects to this veteran at his funeral. We know he would’ve been very happy to know someone cared about him in the end.
