Flag-draped coffins and saluting crowds united a nation in grief yesterday as the first victims of the Fort Hood shooting were laid to rest.
The usually deserted Main Street of Plymouth, Ind., was packed as hundreds of mourners watched a white hearse carry Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow to his grave.
Similar scenes played out in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah, California and Illinois.
“We may never find out the reason for what occurred on that fateful day,” said Ross Ridge, a deputy commanding general who said goodbye to his colleague, Army Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, in Oklahoma.
“The military community are all grieving here today.”
The first six funerals took place as President Obama vowed to hold accountable anyone who missed signs that Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was embracing radical Islam before he slaughtered the 13 victims at the base.
“If there was a failure to take . . . action before the shootings, there must be accountability,” he said in his weekly radio and Internet address yesterday.