A fitting send-off

The casket of Navy Petty Officer PO2 (Petty Officer, Second Class), EOD2 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Second Class), Mike Monsoor, 5 April 1981 to 29 September 2006. Mike Monsoor was awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor for giving his life in Iraq. He jumped on, and covered with his body, a live hand grenade that was accidentally dropped by a Navy SEAL, saving the lives of a large group of SEALs. During Mike Monsoor's funeral, at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California, the six pallbearers removed the rosewood casket from the hearse. Lined up on each side were his family members, friends, fellow sailors, and well-wishers. The column of people continued from the hearse all the way to the gravesite. What the group didn't know was that every SEAL (45, to be exact) that Mike Monsoor had saved that day were scattered throughout the column! As the pallbearers carried the casket to the grave, the column would collapse, forming a group that followed behind. Every time the casket passed a SEAL, he would remove the gold trident pin from his uniform and slap it down hard, embedding it into the top of the casket. Then the SEAL would step back from the column and salute. It was said that you could hear each of the slaps from across the cemetery. By the time the casket reached the grave site, it looked as if it had a gold inlay from the 45 pins across the top.