September 4

Jimmie Ira Holley
Pentagon

Martha Jackson-Holley waited seven weeks to bury her husband. Jimmie Ira Holley, an accountant for the Army, was missing after the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. For weeks, Jackson-Holley waited for her husband's remains to be identified, as other families buried their loved ones from the Pentagon, often in proper military ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. When Holley was finally identified October 18, 2001, by DNA tests on fragments of bone, his widow cried.

Then she started making arrangements. She wanted a heartfelt memorial service at Holley's church November 3, 2001, then burial at Arlington. A fitting tribute to a former Army sergeant who had served in Vietnam and spent almost 30 years working for the government as a civilian.

You can read his Legacy guest book here.