A Captain’s Blog has the story from an airline pilot’s viewpoint of the homecoming of one of our fallen soldiers.

As a commercial pilot, I too see the effects of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last month I showed up to start a trip and was approached by a gate agent. “Captain, good morning, I wanted to inform you that we have H.R. on this flight”, she said. H.R. stands for human remains. “Are they military?”, I asked. “Yes”, she said. “Is there and escort?”, I asked. “Yes, I already assigned him a seat”, she said. “Would you please tell him to come to the flight deck, you can board him early”, I said.

It goes on from there. Not only was the escort going home with the body, so was the soldier’s family.

Thanks to The Anchoress for the heads up on the story.