Tom Lane buried with honor

NORWALK — Tom Lane gpt quite a sendoff Wednesday. The Air Force was front and center as Lane was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Norwalk. "Every six to eight months we get a call from the military advising us that a military honor guard has been requested either by the family or the funeral director. We are asked to assist them if need be," said Woodlawn sextant Kevin Goodsite. "In this case, two men from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton were assigned. "These officers are highly-respected but no more so than the honor guard from both our local V.F.W. and American Legion." The Air Force assignment went to Lt. Matthew Ladd and Airman 1st. Class Maitland DeThrow. "For A1C DeThrow and myself, it is just a matter of serving who comes up on our detail list," Lt. Ladd said. "We are assigned almost daily. Yesterday we were in Ironton, Ohio. We will not know where we will be tomorrow until we get back on base later today. There are 39 of us in the group that are assigned to funeral details in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and two counties in Pennsylvania. "The two of us, both volunteers for this honor, are on a six-month rotation," said Lt. Ladd, a New Hampshire native. "This is my 55th funeral assignment in this rotation. I will soon rotate back to my job as a computer analyst. A1C DeThrow, who hails from Tennessee, is attached to the Intelligence Section." A unique situation also occurred Wednesday morning with the playing of the taps. Generally, that duty falls on V.F.W. #2743 Chaplain Terry Trumpower but on Wednesday it became more personal as Edison Band Director Denise Reilly and her student, Noah Proctor, did the honor. Proctor's Academic Challenge advisor at Edison, Sarah (Lane) Roan, is the grand-daughter of the deceased. The VFW honor guard included Trumpower, Steve Oblender, Rob Wolcott, George Townsend, Ed Barrett and Dean Hales.