Supporters line procession route of fallen Marine

Tears welled up in Tom Allen's eyes even after the procession carrying the fallen Marine passed by on Bayshore Boulevard. Allen didn't know the man, actually teenager, in the hearse. Lance Cpl. Nathaniel J.A. Schultz of Safety Harbor was killed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Saturday.

Allen has never met the corporal's family.

But it feels like a member of his own family has died, Allen says. He feels the same way every time he comes out to pay his respects to fallen soldiers at these processions.

"I'm a very emotional person," says Allen, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, who flew fighter planes during the Cold War.

Allen and scores of supporters line Bayshore Boulevard on this steamy Friday morning. They wave flags and pay their respects to the passing hearse.

Allen has gone to all of the processions that begin at MacDill Air Force Base and wind into downtown before heading to various funeral homes, maybe a dozen, maybe more over the past few years.

Most of the time the 80-year-old Allen is in the procession, riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle following the hearse with other military bikers. A physical therapy session for a rotator cuff problem kept him off his bike today, though. Instead, he waves a 4-by-6-foot American flag from the median and chokes back tears.

The crowd in front of the Colonnade restaurant grows. Veterans who attend to all these events stand as the procession passes. Some place hands on hearts when the hearse carrying the body of Schultz passes by.

Walter Aerbis is one. At 82, the retired peacetime Marine who joined up in 1946 and served for two years, is a bit unsteady as he rises from his folding chair. He wears a red Marine Corps cap and a red shirt that says "Speak the Language ... Hoo-Rah."

He makes it to all the processions he can. When he was in the marines, he was part of an honor guard in upstate New York that performed military honors at funerals.

"This is important," he says. "I think about this young boy, he was only 19. He hadn't even started to live yet. It gets me every time I see this, even if it's on TV."

Schultz was an assistant gunner assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat 7, I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Aerbis didn't know Schultz, nor does he know the fallen Marine's family. But he feels like being here is an important show of support. Aerbis says he has relatives overseas in the military, two nephews and a grandson. His uncle served in the Marines during World War I.

"It gives me a good feeling," he says. "I can't do much, but being here, makes me feel better. My support is with the family."

Steve Anderson served in Vietnam and he's no stranger to supporting families of soldiers he doesn't know.

On his right wrist are two stainless steel bracelets bearing names of two Vietnam veterans who still are listed as missing in action. He doesn't know them either.

"It's a shame," he says, "that we're still losing guys and girls overseas."

Today, he represents the Vietnam Veterans of America. "It's our mission to make sure that this country never again forgets the troops like it did in Vietnam and Korea, he says.

He tries to make it to every funeral procession along Bayshore, the most recent one just last week.

"I'm here to show my respects for another American soldier killed in Afghanistan," he said. Such a showing means a lot to the family and helps retired soldiers along the route, he says.

"I got back on the last day of '68 and I had people calling me baby killer and they avoided me in airport terminals. It got to a point that I didn't want people to know I was in Vietnam."