Two dozen veterans held US flags and stood at attention as they and dozens of family and friends bid farewell to one of the nation's great war heroes.
Anthony C. Acevedo's four children and two grandchildren escorted his flag-draped coffin as he came to rest at Riverside National Cemetery before the Prisoner of War Missing in Action Memorial.
Acevedo was a World War II medic and one of 350 US soldiers held in a Nazi slave labor camp. His journal proved critical in documenting the deaths and atrocities inside the camp.
He would become the first Mexican-American ever recognized as a Holocaust survivor. He kept one brutality secret, though, until the final months of his life.
At 93, his final words were: "How life tells a story."
"Not only is he a great American, but he's also an icon," Col. Dan Forden, a chaplain at the VA Hospital in Loma Linda, told the crowd. "He's the real measure of a man -- this is the man we want to be."
Three rifle volleys echoed across the hushed crowd. A bugler played "Taps" as veterans gave Acevedo one final salute. Each of Acevedo's children were presented with folded flags, including the one from his coffin, before a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace."
"If I can describe my father with one word, it would be heart," Acevedo's daughter, Rebeca Acevedo-Carlin, said at an earlier memorial service.
"What an incredible, genuine man he was," said his son, Fernando Acevedo. "He would always say have faith, care for others and, more importantly, love one another. I saw my father act with love toward everyone."
His story is one of bravery, honor and heroism -- one forever etched in American history.
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