Air Force Veteran Finally Gets Final Resting Place He Deserves
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- After a long fought battle, a mother has given her veteran son the final resting place he deserves.
Major General Alfred Stewart was a decorated Air Force pilot who lost his fight with cancer.
His mother has been on a crusade to find a burial site worthy of his service, and she finally found it in Baltimore county.
"And from that moment forward, my life was different," Stewart said in an Air Force video.
In his own words, Stewart recalls the moment he fell in love with the Air Force.
It started when he was a star student and athlete at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in the 1970s.
For 32 years, he earned more than a dozen distinguished medals as an Air Force pilot.
"The Air Force was his first and last love," said Sandy Stewart, Alfred Stewart's mother.
His mother says that love kept him going after he was diagnosed with the most aggressive kind of brain cancer in 2012.
"When the doctors told him that it was probably going to be three months to live, he jumped and said, 'They don't have anything that can kill me in three months,'" Sandy said.
The father of two continued serving through radiation and chemotherapy.
He died on march 9, 2014, three days after his 55th birthday.
His remains were shared with his wife and mother. Part of them were buried at Randolph Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas.
For the last three years, Sandy Stewart has tried to get a burial site at the Arlington National Cemetery, but the Army only provides a plot for complete remains.
Now, her wish for a worthy resting place is coming true at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens on Veterans Day.
Major General Stewart will be the very first veteran buried in the newly created section called "The Garden of Honor."
"I'm so grateful that come March 6th next year, I can pull over, right beside the road, and his grave site will be right there," Susan Stewart said.
After 3,000 hours of flying, this veteran is finally home.
The tribute ceremony will be open to the public, and the family wants as many people as possible to attend.
The ceremony will be on Veterans Day, Saturday, November 11, at 11:00 a.m., at the Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens, Garden of Honor, 200 East Padonia Road, Timonium, MD 21093.
Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Order of the Sword posthumously.
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