At decorated veteran's burial, military is MIA

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Retired Col. James Earl Tindall wasn't the type to brag about his military accomplishments. His war room, tucked away in the basement of his Johns Creek home, did all the talking.

The room told the story of 32 years of service, his two tours in Vietnam, 17 medals and commendations, his admission into the Field Artillery Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame.

"My dad wasn't pompous," his son, Lee Tindall, said. "But I'm looking at what service really means, and this was one of the guys who was off the radar."

So when it came time to bury the colonel after he died following a heart attack in June, the Tindalls expected the Army to give the 71-year-old veteran his due: full military honors at the Georgia National Cemetery near Canton.

About 300 friends and family members showed up for the July 6 ceremony.

The Army did not.

No honor guard. No gun salute. No active military personnel to fold and present the flag to the colonel's widow. No one in uniform, save a bugler who happened to be a family friend and her son, a Boy Scout.

"Quite simply, I can think of no two other words besides ‘disgrace' and ‘tragedy' to describe the funeral of a decorated war hero at a national cemetery where no one from the military bothered to attend," Col. Tindall's son, Whit Tindall, said.

Worse, family members said, no one from the Army tried to make amends until after Whit Tindall fired off letters to more than 15 of the highest ranking military, legislative and executive officials, President Barack Obama among them.

The first response came 10 days later, from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which apologized for the oversight but made clear that the military honors program falls under the Department of Defense.

"I was stunned," Nona Tindall, the colonel's wife of 47 years, said of the honor guard's absence. "I said to my sons, ‘Before we go to bed tonight, I know there'll be an Army officer at the door.' Of course, there wasn't."

Department of Defense rules direct military honors to be provided for those eligible when a family member requests them through a funeral home. In general, eligibility means active duty personnel, those who have been other than dishonorably discharged, or were retired; and who had not been convicted of capital crimes.

Col. Deborah Grays, the garrison commander at Fort McPherson, said Wednesday she takes full responsibility for the no-show, saying it came about because some last-minute coordination fell through the cracks.

"There is no other excuse," Grays said. "We failed to do what we were supposed to do."

She said units under her command perform hundreds of military honors each year over 45 counties in Georgia. Tindall's ceremony was the only one in the past four or five years that "we have not made mission on," she said.

Col. Tindall died June 29 after suffering his sixth heart attack. His body was cremated and his remains placed in a box-shaped wooden urn engraved with his name and  "Pops," a nickname given to him by his granddaughter.

The family requested military honors, so Alpharetta-SouthCare Funeral Home arranged it, said Tony Papel, the funeral home manager.

"We sent the paperwork in ... and [the military] confirmed the services and the service time" by phone July 1, Papel said.

Days before the ceremony, the funeral home reminded the Tindalls to be on time. The ceremony would start promptly at 10 a.m. and last no longer than 15 minutes.

Shortly after 10:15 a.m., when it was clear the Army was missing in action, a coordinator with the Georgia National Cemetery said that a contingent of Marines could perform the honors instead --  after 2 p.m.

The Tindalls couldn't wait. Almost 300 suit-and dress-wearing attendees were standing, already perspiring in the midsummer heat.

So they improvised. The bugler, Brenda Ehlt, stood and asked how many had once served in the military. More than 20 veterans stood behind her as Ehlt played taps. Then two of the men carefully folded the flag and presented it to Mrs. Tindall.

"It was a beautiful ceremony," Lee Tindall said. "That's still not the military honors we feel he deserved."

Family friend Jack Davis, who attended, called the Army's failure to show up or offer an immediate explanation "simply inexcusable."

"I'm just appalled," said Davis, whose 32-year-old son is a Navy demolitions expert. "I just don't understand, particularly with a guy like Col. Tindall and his background."

Col. Grays said she is working to make things right, relaying her apologies in several letters and calls to Nona, Whit and Lee Tindall, and she plans to continue to do so every 60 days up until July 4, 2010.

On that date, two days before the one-year anniversary of the colonel's interment, an honor guard will deliver full military honors at his grave site. Grays, who said she will attend, also is offering a brass quintet to play, among other things, "Onward, Christian Soldiers."

"This is heavy on my heart," Grays said. "You can never bring back the day, but ... we are trying to rectify the wrong. Not a day goes by that I don't feel responsibility for the mere fact that it's one of our own."

The Tindalls praised Grays' response. Still, they say they are bothered by the mistake and fear it could happen again, given the little response they received up the chain of command.

"Can you imagine how the parents of a 19-year-old son or daughter would feel if their child died in combat and no one from the military bothered to attend the service ...?" Nona Tindall said. "What does that say about their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their child?"

For more information

Department of Defense Web site, www.militaryfuneralhonors.osd.mil/faqpage.html

How we got this story

AJC reporter Shane Blatt wrote the news obituary for retired Col. James Tindall in late June. In mid-September, Col. Tindall's son, Whit Tindall, messaged the reporter, informing him of the Army's no-show at his father's funeral in July. The reporter contacted the funeral home and the cemetery to confirm that what the family said was true. The AJC then contacted the Army colonel in charge of the unit for comment.