1,500 Strangers Turn a WWII Veteran's Funeral into a Community Memorial

After a call from a veterans' advocate, about 1,500 people gathered in Massachusetts for the Catholic Mass funeral of World War II Navy veteran John Bernard Arnold III, who had no immediate family. The ceremony included four veterans saluting his casket, a poignant reflection on Arnold’s life (love of classical music, chocolate cake, and Grey’s Anatomy), bagpipes, and a gun salute. The flag from his casket was given to the veterans home that cared for him, and his great-nephew Joe Durban later flew in to receive the flag and visit Arnold’s grave, turning a solitary burial into a large-scale act of remembrance.