Veteran
Mission
Report
 

Ron Kristofferson Mission Report Monday 01 Dec 08
Roger Danielson RCIC

December 1st dawned bright and sunny, but chilly and a brisk northwest wind. Thirteen hardy PGR members met at 9:15 across from the Lakewood Evangelical Free Church in Baxter in preparation for paying last respects to Ronald Kristofferson, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran.

The flag line was set at 9:30 and we stood for the visitation that ended at 11:00.

Once the funeral service itself started we stood down and took a warming house break inside a back hall of the church.

All those present were very kind and appreciative of our presence.

We reformed our line as the casket was removed from the church and placed in the waiting hearse. At this time family and friends went back inside the church for lunch, as the interment at Camp Ripley was not until 2:00. The PGR and the VFW Color Guard received a very nice surprise when the folks from Brenny Funeral Chapel invited all of us to go to their Chapel and have a pizza and pop lunch before heading to Camp Ripley. What a fantastic show of appreciation on their part and they got a very deserving round of applause from the joint group.

Then it was off to Camp Ripley. Upon our arrival we discovered that the Cemetery staff had accidentally scheduled two services at the same time. Our procession was on its way down from Baxter and there was another one on its way up from Little Falls with another highly decorated Vietnam veteran. It was determined that which ever procession arrived first would indeed be first and we were the lucky ones.

It was a short half hour service with honors paid by the Crow Wing County Color Guard and Rifle Squad.

We stood for the arrival of the casket and the family, and then for the Rifle Squad salute and taps. There were several requests from the honor guard from Little Falls for us to stay for the second funeral, but non of them were family and we had to respectfully decline with explanation.

Ron had a sense of humour and on the front of his burial announcement it had a colored photo of him captioned by "Gone fishing". It would have been a joy to have known this great soldier.

(@) Pictures from mission

(@) PGR National Thread

Roger Danielson
Brainerd ARC