Volunteers carry WWII veteran to visit wife's Arlington grave

WASHINGTON - When 96-year-old World War II veteran George Boone was unable to make it to his wife’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery, a cemetery worker and a volunteer there had a solution: they carried him.

Boone served as a B-24 pilot and became a prisoner of war when he was shot down over Romania in 1943. Recently, he was on a group tour that was only scheduled to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, when he asked to see his wife’s grave. 

Boone will one day be buried in Arlington, but his wife, who passed away in 2007, is already laid to rest there. He wanted to see her grave for perhaps the last time, but assumed he would have to see it from a distance.

When his wheelchair was accidentally left behind, a volunteer and a worker came up with a solution: Carrying him to his late wife’s grave.

For his part, Boone wants to thank the worker, who wished to remain anonymous.

“I would like him to know how greatly I appreciate what he did,” he told Fox 5 DC. “His kindness was overwhelming.”