From Twentyone guns to the Cross

1
From Twenty-one guns to the Cross

• A study of American funeral ritual
• By Matt Lawson

2
Colonel William F. Lawson

• Combat tours
• WWII (Africa, Asia, Europe)
• Korea
• Vietnam (two tours)

• Medals
• Two Bronze Stars
• Legion of Merit
• Campaign medals
• Tunisia
• Malaysia
• Battle of the Bulge
• Korea
• Vietnam

3
Irene Kelly

• Served as a postman in U.S. Navy during WWII
• Mother of six
• Devoted Catholic
• Did NOT cook well at all (Irish)

4
Military Service

• Arlington Cemetery
• Urn carried in casket on a caisson drawn by four
  black horses
• Interred in the Columbarium
• No religious ceremony of any kind
• Priest did read a prayer
• Twenty-one gun salute

5
Arlington
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Catholic Ceremony

• Standard ceremony
• Only family in attendance
• Priest was a close family friend
• Viewing before funeral
• Wake afterwards at her house in Arial, New Jersey

9
Comparison of servicesMilitary Catholic

• Funeral is time to remember service record
• Focus on country
• Not family
• No emotion shown
• No religious element
• Many request this

• Family integral to ceremony
• Religion
• Viewing
• Eulogy
• James Kelly

10
Conclusion

• Ceremony performed to deal with the physical
  aspect of a dead being
• Military remembers loyalty to country
• Catholicism aides the passage of the soul to the
  heaven
• Culture dictates form of service but function
  remains the same
• Every group can interpret the needs of the
  deceased, but at the core need a ritual to deal
  with death and its inevitability