When Mt. Pleasant army veteran Patrick Birgy was watching the funeral of former First Lady Barbra Bush, he made a promise to his sons.
“I told them we were going to go to the funerals of all of the presidents that I was deployed under,” he said.
When George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the united states died from complications from Parkinson’s disease on Nov. 30, Birgy’s youngest son, Daniel, reminded him of that promise.
“I guess we’re going now,” Daniel told his father that day.
Patrick Birgy said that his son has a sharp memory and was planning to keep him to his word.
At that point, Patrick Birgy, Daniel Birgy and Max Birgy, along with Marine Corps veteran Tom Creuger and his two sons, Reid Creuger, Brock Creuger and Xavier Creuger, prepared themselves for a 10-hour road trip from Mt. Pleasant to Washington D.C. to pay tribute to the president that both veterans were first deployed under on Dec. 1.
They took time to prepare for the trip, according to Xavier Creuger.
“My mom made sure that we were all prepared with snacks and a cooler for the trip,” he said.
Once they were all packed, after their Mt. Pleasant team won in a basketball game against Sacred Heart Academy, they left their house at around 10 p.m. Monday night. The group got to Washington D.C. at around 8 a.m., according to Tom Creuger and the kids.
They first made their way to the U.S. Capitol Building, where the former president’s casket was on display.
“There was a lot of secret service agents,” said Max Birgy. “There was also a big line in the left side of the rotunda for the people to see the casket.”
After they waited in line, they saw the casket that contained the former president. Five guards from each branch of the U.S. military was guarding the flag-draped casket, according to Pat Birgy. The boys said that they felt the importance of what George H.W. Bush represented.
“I was honored,” Xavier Creuger said. “It made me realize how much he did for our country.”
The boys also talked about what George H.W. Bush did in his lifetime, including joining the navy six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and a recently unearthed note of encouragement that he gave to former President Bill Clinton after he took office in 1991.
After they payed their respects, the boys wrote in a book thanking the former president for his service.
“Thank you so much for your service,” Brock Creuger wrote in the book.
The process took around 20 minutes, according to Tom Creuger.
Once they got out of the Capitol Building, they went to Arlington National Cemetery where Tom Creuger said the boys learned a lesson that they would never learn elsewhere.
“When you all look at the tombstones, you can't tell if the person's white, black, Hispanic,” he told ABC12 out of Flint, “All you know they lived and they died and they served their country.”
He also told them that the soldiers who die in the line of service made the world a better place through their service.
https://www.themorningsun.com/news/local/mt-pleasant-vets-take-their-sons-to-attend-former-president/article_1470ac7e-fb38-11e8-99d3-b3badbd39aac.html
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