When World War II veteran Robert Lee Serling was laid to rest on Monday, an Alabama police officer paid what he felt was the proper respect to one of the few black soldiers who fought in the Pacific. Serling passed away June 5 at the age of 100.
Mt. Vernon police officer Newman Brazier stood at attention in a driving rain as Serling’s funeral procession made its way into the Alabama Veterans Cemetery in Spanish Fort.
The gesture was not something Brazier had to think twice about as he crossed jurisdictions for the opportunity to honor Serling.
“It was automatic when I heard he passed,” he told NBC15 News in Mobile.
Asked what he felt driving over to meet the procession, Brazier shared that it was important to him to do something to draw attention to Serling’s legacy.
“I felt that he would want to be acknowledged,” he explained. “I felt that being from a small town like Mt. Vernon that he could do what he did and pass and nobody would realize it and not respect it. It was my point to let everybody know that was in that area that he was there, that he was passing through even if it was for the last time.”
Eddie Irby, Jr., president and founder of the 92nd Division Buffalo Soldiers organization, said that Brazier’s act did not go unnoticed among those attending the ceremony.
“He was just standing there at attention when we passed by,” Irby remarked. “Everybody…said something about it when we got up there. 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.”
Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia
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