Sen. Frank Lautenberg was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. There was a steady rain. Soldiers fired rifle volleys, a bugler played taps and mourners paid their final respects.
The New Jersey Democrat was 89 when he died this week and his death marked a somber milestone.
For the first time since the end of World War II, there are no veterans of that war in the U.S. Senate. Lautenberg had been the only one remaining.
His military service was a recurring theme in tributes this week. At a service on Wednesday, Vice President Biden delivered a eulogy: “I’m told the first time … he ever left the New Jersey/New York region was … when he joined the United States Army at age 18. Was shipped out. When he came back, he’d proudly tell you anyone who would listen he went to Columbia. He just didn’t go to school; he went to Columbia.”
Lautenberg grew up poor and used the brand-new GI Bill to attend that prestigious university. Speaking with the Scripps Howard News Service in 2011, he said his time in the military helped him understand the need to give something to your country.
“Veterans became presidents. Veterans became senators, titans of business,” he said. “The experience of sharing risk, of depending on someone else for your life, of being able to offer someone else support for their lives, changes the attitude.”
via WWII Vets Have All But Vanished From The Halls Of Congress.
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