(WSVN) - As a World War II Navy veteran’s funeral procession traveled along a Missouri highway, his granddaughter spotted a trucker pulling over his tractor-trailer in order to salute as they passed.
Kristen Collins was among the relatives in that procession as they drove to lay her grandfather, 91-year-old Fred Ladage, to rest with full military honors.
But en route to the cemetery, Collins snapped a photo of the driver, who pulled to the shoulder of I-70, got out of his cab and placed his hand on his heart as he watched the procession drive by.
It meant the world to Collins, who shared the photo on Facebook as a way of thanking the kind stranger.
“While in the funeral procession today to Jefferson barracks to lay my grandfather to rest a man driving a truck pulled off and made honor as we all proceeded. Thank you for showing such great honor,” Kristen Collins wrote.
Fox News reports that within hours of the photo being posted online, Bradley Faulkner’s wife recognized her husband, who served nine years in the U.S. Army and deployed to Iraq.
Collins says she later connected with Faulkner, and was able to thank him personally for honoring her grandfather.
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