I was the Commander of the Ceremonial Guard of Lancaster County, a group of overweight, out of shape veterans just trying to make a little difference. We mostly did casket details and veteran's funerals but we ended up doing a lot of parades and other civic activities too.

In May of 1994 we sponsored a visit of the Vietnam Veterans Moving Wall to Lancaster. It was our last official event before we disbanded out of emotional exhaustion.

I remember one dreary afternoon quite vividly. There had been light rain on and off all day and visitors were not exactly flocking to the site. In the afternoon during one of those showers, a lady about our age stopped in at the visitor's tent and asked for the location of a name. It was my turn in the rotation so I looked it up for her. She thanked me and as she started out of the tent to make the short walk down to the Wall, I offered her one of the umbrellas we had but she politely declined as she pulled up the hood of her windbreaker.

I asked her if she'd like to wait until the drizzle stopped. She turned to speak to me and I'm not sure if it was a tear or a drop of rain on her cheek.

“No, that's OK," she said, "They didn't get to wait.”