51�Թ�

I recall marching down Fifth Avenue in 1968 in a Veterans Day parade wearing my cadet dress uniform.

Behind them were hundreds more Charlotte-Mecklenburg officers walking quietly in dress uniforms to the church where an American flag hung from the top of a firetruck’s tall ladder.

She heard a car, looked out the window and saw men in military dress uniforms heading toward her house.

He held a moment of silence, flanked by service members in dress uniforms, while a metronome’s beats sounded, like the slow ticking of a clock: Tock.

He wore a simple black suit rather than an Army dress uniform covered in ribbons and decorations acquired over more than 40 years in the military.