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Comments for Cemetary Visits: Leave a Coin on Military Graves!

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Another Meaning of a Nickle
by: Anonymous

In the fighter pilot community, you leave a nickel to honor a fighter pilot who has "flown west."

It harkens back to an old drinking song, a refrain from which was "throw a nickel on the grass, save a fighter pilot's ass."

Today, if you visit the grave of a fighter pilot who has passed, and he still has many friends, there will be nickelss there.
Misunderstanding
by: TLaRochelle

Last Sunday the Patriot Guard Riders completed a special mission of placing placards by the graves of all soldiers from our state that have died in the war on terror since 911.

I just then learned of the coin tradition but misunderstood it a bit. We thought that leaving a nickle meant that you served in the same military branch, not necessarily together. A dime if you served in the same conflict and a quarter if in the same unit at the time of the soldiers death.

Thanks for posting and clearing it up for me.

Wendy: Just googled this again and here is what a military board.. Especially the end, "Today, the denomination of the coin left on the headstone has become less significant because so few people carry coins other than quarters."

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