An Alabama police officer endured the pouring rain last week to honor a fallen World War II veteran.
Officer Newman Brazier of the Mt. Vernon Police Department stood in an afternoon downpour without his rain gear at the Monday funeral of 100-year-old Pfc. Robert Lee Serling, who died on June 5. Brazier stood outside the cemetery until Serling’s funeral procession completely went through the gate.
“I felt that he would want to be acknowledged. I felt that, being from a small town like Mt. Vernon, he could do what he did and pass and nobody would realize it and not respect it. It was my point to let everyone in that area know that he was there, he was passing through, even if it was for the last time,” Brazier said, according to WPMI.
Serling was part of the Fifth Army’s 92nd Infantry Division, known as the buffalo soldiers, an all-black division in the U.S. Army during World War II. The unit was one of the few squads made up entirely of black soldiers to see combat during the war, primarily in Italy. Serling fought in the Pacific theater, one of the few black soldiers to do so, according to the local outlet.
“Everybody at the community center said something about that after we got up there and started the program. They said, ‘Man, did you see that cop up there soaking wet, standing at attention.’ It took an effect on those guys, especially those veterans, to see somebody doing that. What an honor,” said Eddie Irby Jr., president and founder of the 92nd Infantry Division Association, a club for veterans of the unit.
“Somebody like that, you marvel at their respect, admiration, and all they stand for,” he added. The association plans to give Brazier a certificate of appreciation for his actions.
Neither Brazier nor the association responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
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During their combat in Italy, the buffalo soldiers earned over 12,000 medals, including two Medals of Honor.
On April 5, 1945, 1st Lt. Vernon Baker neutralized three machine-gun nests and one observation post during his unit’s attack on a German mountain stronghold in northern Italy before evacuating wounded comrades. The following night, he led his battalion through a minefield and enemy fire toward its objective, according to the U.S. Army.
The other Medal of Honor recipient was 1st Lt. John Fox, who was killed while delaying German advances in the same region as Baker on Dec. 26, 1944.
