Henry told Kinsey that he ran into Bucky a while ago and that he told him that he had a problem. The problem was that Johnny didn’t want a funeral, but he wanted to be cremated, which was done right away. But then it occurred to him that Johnny was entitled to a military burial. Henry said that he guessed that Johnny was a fighter pilot during world war two, part of the American Volunteer Group under Claire Chennault.
Bucky thought I’d be nicer: white marble with his name engraved, and that kind of thing.
His father Chester thought that it sounded pretty good. So Bucky went out to the local Veterans Administration Office and filled out a claim form. He didn’t have all the information but he did what he could. He got the claim back after 3 months. It was marked: ‘‘cannot identify’’. Bucky called the VA, the guy send him another form to complete. The form was a request for military records. The request came back after only 3 weeks with the same rubber stamp. Bucky told Chester what happened. Chester called the Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, which is where the Air force keeps personnel files. They said that they had no record of Johnny Lee, or if they did they wouldn’t talk. They wanted to see Johnny get what he deserved. Kinsey offered to help. Henry left, he went to pickup family members who came for the wedding.