Went to Shane's funeral today.

The mass was great. Several of his friends escorted his casket to the altar. His commander delivered a

eulogy written mostly by Shane's wife Emily. If you read his obituary she wrote that too. The church was filled to capacity. A bagpipe played Amazing Grace and that got Bubba pretty teared up.

After the mass the Denver police basically shut down traffic in the heart of Denver to escort the funeral possession to the National Cemetery. The city of Denver knew somebody important had died. The procession was huge. I wouldn't venture to guess how many cars there were. Each car was filled as Emily told us parking at the church would be minimal so we all worked it out so we would take as few cars as possible and I couldn't see the end of the procession as we drove. The burial service was outstanding. They had a full honor guard.

Shane's wife Emily, his mother, and his sisters each received a flag. His mother and Emily both got flags in a flag-shaped shadow box that had his wings and medals in it. Emily wore his name tag all

day long. They gave Shane a 21 gun salute and played taps (yep Bubba cried again) and then they had a fly by with F-16's (everybody started crying at this point). After they announced the end of the ceremony Emily led us all in singing Amazing Grace.

Afterwards we all went over to the house and drank beer and told stories about Shane. Emily was extremely happy with the ceremony and told me she appreciated all the prayers and support from everybody and understood that everybody couldn't make it out for the funeral. I told her she would always be a part of our family. She is going to write a book about Shane that will include all the stories that people tell her about him so if you have one post it and we will make sure she gets it. She's also writing down all the Shane-isms like "I physically hate you" and "You know nobody likes you". If you can think of any of those, post those as well. She is still hurting but she was strong today. She did Shane proud and I was humbled by her strength. She made sure that we were all taken care of and made sure

that we all got a hug and some comforting words even in what must have been the hardest day of her life.

She is a class act.

Keep Shane, Emily, and Shane's family in your prayers.

Bubba