Actually this occurred in the not so distant past, but still an OK story.

I performed a graveside ceremony for a gentleman who served in the US Air Force. As a veteran, by United States law, he's permitted a military funeral with an honors detail with members of his branch of service. In this case, it was a USAF detail from an air base not too distant from the interment.

I was hired to perform on pipes with the usual shtick: pipe pallbearers to grave, a lament in mid-service, and the usual Amazing Grace after the detail's flag folding & presentation.

The cemetery pre-dated the War Between the States and was located in north Mississippi. Typically, this one was still in use and well-maintained. Gated family sections within it held the buried remains of several generations, many having served in the Confederate Army, both WW’s, Korea, and Viet Nam.

Unlike most municipal cemeteries in the US, rural graveyards almost never use burial vaults. These are poured concrete ‘sarcophogi’ that the coffin is lowered into, then sealed with a fitted concrete lid.

The first two tunes went glitch-free, but the fubar was yet to come. The preacher wasn’t long-winded and soon enough it was time for the airmen to fold the flag draped over the coffin. For some reason, the funerary trade in the US insists upon calling these boxes 'caskets', but I digress.

I've assumed my post near a flowering magnolia tree and prior to this day, there'd been 2-3 days of rain, so the heavy clay soil was fairly moist, if not outright saturated.

The flag folding portion began. There were three airmen in the detail: two folding and the remaining was the non-commissioned officer in charge - the NCOIC.

The airman who ends up with the triangularly folded flag, carries it to the NCOIC. His job was to receive the folded flag, ritually inspect it, then kneel and present it to a selected family member.

As the airman was about to bring the flag to the NCOIC, the soil gave way from underneath the other airman. This young man slid underneath the coffin positioned on the lowering device and directly into the open grave below. To add insult to injury, when he hit bottom, an audible splash was heard. Yep – there was several inches of standing water in the bottom of the grave.

There was a collective gasp from the mourners as most came outta their chairs. The NCOIC, to his credit, seized control of the situation and silently motioned to those assembled to remain seated & calm. The airman in the grave spoke a single word indicating he was uninjured.

The flag was presented as if nothing unusual occurred. I piped AG and afterwards the funeral directors cleared the graveside of mourners so that the detail could retrieve their compatriot with as much dignity as possible under the circumstances. Whooooeeee – he was covered in red clay mud. It appeared his uniform would hafta be 86’d. They didn’t bother to retrieve his head cover.

Gratefully, he didn’t whack his cranium on the metal bar of the lowering device when he slid into the grave. Nor did he come completely unglued as I suspect most folks would. There’s something about standing in wet hole with a loaded coffin above one’s head.

Any of you other pipers have some funeral piping stories?

Slainte yall,
steve