belonged to his brother, a Marine who died in Vietnam.

damn... ace's old post mentions clawhammers.  I musta subconsciously stoled it.

"Reverend" may be the most common first name people pay to legally get at the local courthouse.  Fifty dollars and you too can be legally entitled to demand people call you "Reverend", without all that seminary and ordaining stuff.

Thirty years ago, I knew of a small-time con artist who on occasion would don the summer whites of a Naval officer.  He was run out of Georgia for dealing in endangered animals (both dead and alive) and out of Texas for trying to run a scam on Farrah Fawcett's father.  I came cross-hairs with him when he tried to sell my neighbor a polar bear rug that came with a $10,000 story of a death-defying hunt on the ice of the Arctic.  Being a biologist, I suggested that the bear was a zoo specimen that had lived on concrete, due to the condition of the claws.  It turns out, the scam artist had paid the guys responsible for disposal of a bear at the local zoo, that had died of liver disease, to skin the bear before burying the rest.

Thieves steal.  Things.  Reputations.  Honor.  Respect.  Life.

I hope Buddle gets plenty of toothbrushes to clean every inch of every grave marker, and enough time to read the name of every honored warrior he dishonored.  I've always hoped old "Dutch the dapper Naval hero" ran up against a Seal team out for a night on the town, a few decades back.  Those kind of guys have been stealing honor as long as warriors have received it.