Around 300 people show up for funeral for veteran with no family, thanks to the efforts of members of Post 40’s Legion Family in Massachusetts.
What started as a simple color guard assignment at a veteran’s funeral turned into much more, thanks to members of American Legion Post 40 in Plymouth, Mass.
U.S. Air Force and Army veteran Francis M. “Frank” Dobrynski, who passed away earlier this year, was going to be buried with little fanfare because no one could locate any members of his family. But when Post 40’s color guard was asked to render honors at the funeral, two of its members decided more could be done.
The result: On Oct. 17, hundreds showed up at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne to provide Dobrynski with the proper sendoff, including various military and veteran groups, state politicians and members of the community who had never even met the veteran.
Jay Beauregard, a corporal in Post 40’s color guard, said a previous experience providing honors at a veteran’s funeral motivated him to urge others to attend this one.
“We were the rifle detail and were at the Bourne national cemetery. The hearse showed up and the Air Force detail was there, but there was nobody else there,” Beauregard said. “No family, no friends, nobody. That was the saddest thing I’ve ever participated in. In fact, the Air Force pulled me out of the firing detail to accept the flag from the Air Force. That was very, very sad. I was hoping that would be the last time I would ever see that.”
Post 40 got involved when Heidie L. Grant, a funeral director at Cartmell-Davis Funeral Home in Plymouth and a member of Auxiliary Unit 40, told Commander Brad Freeman about Dobrynski’s situation and asked if Post 40’s honor guard would be available to provide a rifle salute at the veteran’s funeral, to which Freeman said yes.
“A few months went by, and she gave me a date,” Freeman said. “I called Jay. He got his daughter Danielle involved. She’s in the Marine Corps League Auxiliary, and she was like, ‘Hey, let’s spread the word.’ We went back to the funeral and got their permission to post about it on social media to get more than a half a dozen of us (at the funeral). And it kind of went viral. It was an amazing thing.”
Beauregard put a request for attendance at funeral on what he said were 10 or so Facebook pages that he frequents, hoping “to get a couple people to show up.” But then his daughter, who also is a member of Unit 40, got involved.
“She called me and said, ‘Dad, I put your post up on 127 more sites,” Beauregard said. “After that, she was the contact person for all the groups that wanted to attend. The people I think should get most of the credit are Heidie at the funeral home and Danielle for reaching out to so many more other organizations.”
By the time the funeral rolled around, so many people were expected to attend that the service had to be moved to the cemetery’s largest venue. Among the roughly 300 in attendance were members of Post 40 and its Riders chapter, the Marine Corps League, Patriot Guard Riders and other veteran service organizations. Also paying their respects to the Korean War veteran were State Reps. Steven Xiarhos, Justin Thurber and John Gaskey, as well as State Sen. Kelly A. Dooner.
“People just wanted to be there for him. It was amazing,” said Freeman, Post 40’s color guard sergeant. “I think the veteran community right now, they’re looking for something to do with their brothers and sisters. They’re looking for something to bring us together.
“And it’s what we do. My color guard is the only color guard in our county that provides this service. It’s something we do, but I think this particular service was … to show some respect for our brother and show some camaraderie with our veteran brothers and sisters.”
Freeman praised Beauregard for his dedication to the color guard. And for Beauregard, seeing the turnout made him feel “the opposite of being so depressed from having nobody there. It was pure satisfaction. Hopefully this guy was looking down from heaven. It made me feel so good that these people showed up. They didn’t have to be there.”
Beauregard said it didn’t matter whether or not he’d ever met Dobrynski. “This person was a veteran. He deserved it,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what he did other than serving in the Army and Air Force. I don’t need to know that. All I know is this person was in the military, did his time and deserved some respect.”
- Honor & Remembrance