[Don Sanders]

Captain John Leed and I went in full dress uniform to Captain Carne's laying-out, this afternoon. Visitation was from 2 to 6 PM, and we left Rising Sun early expecting to beat the crowd, but when we arrived at ten after two, the intersection of Madison Pike and Kyles Lane, in Ft. Wright, Kentucky, was crowded unlike any funeral I had ever witnessed.

Veterans groups were lined up on each side of the drive going into the funeral home with each participant bearing an American flag. Knowing we could not find a place to park in that lot, we luckily found a shady space under a tree in the parking lot of the steak house next door. Even after getting there soon after the doors opened, we waited in line for 45 minutes before we entered the viewing room where the Carnes and Bernstein families were bravely receiving mourners and well-wishes who were there to pay their final respects to Captain/Sergeant Nick Carnes.

Captain Al Bernstein greeted the two of us as we entered the room and the effects of the tragedy were visibly taking a toll of the stalwart riverboat captain. When asked how he and the rest of the family were holding up, Cap'n Al replied, "Not very well, but we will eventually get better."

Al's brave and strong daughter, Captain Terri Bernstein-Carnes came to us after we left her father, and John and I told her of our sadness and regrets that such a fine young man, her husband, was taken just days before he was due to rotate home after nearly a year over there.

Terri presented us to her grandmother, Shirley Bernstein, the matriarch of the clan and namesake of the towboat, SHIRLEY B. We then greeted Mary Bernstein, Terri's mom who, after hugs and tears, introduced us to Wray Jean Carnes, the young, lovely mother of Captain Carnes. Finally we paused in front of the open casket and said our good-bys to all that remained of such a promising life cut off just as it was blooming.

Tomorrow, Captain/Sergeant Carnes will be laid to eternal rest amid the tributes and honors bestowed for events within his all-too-short life, and all the fanfare that will surely accompany those kudos will also be in celebration of a young life very well-lived.