(20 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Augusta, Maine – 20 June 2024
1. Volunteers holding flags behind casket
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Laweryson, Retired U.S. Marine:
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“Everybody deserves to have dignity with…and at the final end. And he deserves not to be alone, whether they’re service member or not.”
3. Wide of volunteers holding flags
4. People paying respects to casket
5. People singing Marine Corps song
6. Chaplain speaking to crowd
7. Volunteers holding flags
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Roberts, Commander, VFW Belfast:
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“When we were asked, we were told that, Mr. Brooks had been abandoned and we stepped in to fill the role of family because, again, we’re all servicemen, all of us servicemen and women, and we are all family. We all stick together. So, it’s a huge honor for us to be able to facilitate these services.”
9. Close up of casket
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jim Roberts, Commander, VFW Belfast:
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“We were initially contacted by the funeral home and asked if we do a veteran service, if we’d lead a veteran’s service, and we of course said yes. And from there, it just grew into what you saw today. Hundreds of people, literally hundreds of people. For us, it’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do these services. We’re all family. All of us who served in the military. We’re all family. So, you’re never truly alone.”
11. Chaplin speaking to crowd
12. People singing Marine Corps song
13. Honor guard folding flag
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Abbott, Executive Director, Bread of Life shelter:
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“He was such a hoot at the soup kitchen, every day the, you know, quintessential 80-year-old dad jokes. Every day he called me the big boss lady and always liked his coffee nice and tan. And was just, was just great to have around. Was really part of the soup kitchen family and he’s very much missed.”
15. Linda Laweryson reading a poem
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Laweryson, Retired U.S. Marine:
“Any man or woman that serves in the Marine Corps. It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood. So, then we have family all around us. So, it was important this was a family member we were burying today.”
17. Honor guard folding flag, Taps playing
STORYLINE:
Former U.S. Marine Gerry Brooks died alone at a nursing home in Maine, abandoned and all but forgotten. Then the funeral home posted a notice asking if anyone would serve as a pallbearer or simply attend his burial.
Within minutes, it was turning away volunteers to carry his casket.
A bagpiper came forward to play at the service. A pilot offered to perform a flyover. Military groups across the state pledged a proper sendoff.
Hundreds of people who knew nothing about the 86-year-old beyond his name showed up on a sweltering afternoon and gave Brooks a final salute with full military honors Thursday at the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Augusta.
Patriot Guard Riders on motorcycles escorted his hearse on the 40-mile route from the funeral home in Belfast, Maine, to the cemetery. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars paid tribute with a 21-gun salute. Volunteers held American flags next to the casket while a crane hoisted a huge flag above the cemetery entrance.
Some saluted while filing by. Others sang The Marines’ Hymn.
Roberts said the VFW is called a couple times a year about a deceased veteran with no family or with one that isn’t willing to handle the funeral arrangements. But “we will always be there." Like other veterans helping out Thursday, he hadn’t known Brooks.
“It renews your faith in humanity,” she said.
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