M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Nathan White, LDS Pilot Shot Down Over Iraq,
Buried at Arlington
An Exclusive Photographic Essay
Photography by Scot Facer Proctor
Essay by Maurine Jensen Proctor
Photos from family files used by permission
All Arlington Photographs Copyright 2003 Scot Facer Proctor
(Use of any photographs herein only by written permission of Meridian Magazine)

click on photos to enlarge

Part 2

He was born in Abilene, Texas, the second oldest of eight brothers and sisters. He was a 1991 graduate of Cooper High School. He interrupted his college studies to serve a church mission for two years in Osaka, Japan. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1997, cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in Japanese.

He met Akiko while serving as a Japanese translator in New York. After college he worked for a year in a management-training program with Dillard’s department store, but then had the choice between law school and the naval aviation program. He was offered scholarships to both BYU and the University of Texas in law, but was drawn to fly.

His Grandmother White remembered that when Nathan was about ten years old, the children were visiting her. Nate’s dad, Dennis, was flying an Air Force C130 from Texas to Hill Air Force Base, and since her house was right in the flight path, they laid a big quilt on the lawn and gathered as a group to watch the flyover.

Since the plane had mechanical problems, Dennis was delayed and didn’t fly over until about 3:00 p.m. Grandma White said, “When we spotted his big plane, we cheered. He flew two circles around the capitol building and right over our house, that is half a block away. The amazing thing was that Nathan had not moved from his spot for four hours, wanting not to miss his dad. He was so impressed.”

Nathan went to Officer Candidate school at Pensacola, Fla., and was commissioned as an Ensign in July 1998. He earned his “Wings of Gold” in April 2001, graduating at the top of his class.

Today Akiko is wearing the “wings of gold” around her neck, as she carries Zach, and Courtney and Austin are huddled around her.

They exit the chapel at Arlington along with Nate’s parents, Dennis and Sherry White, and Arja and Gordon Warren. The drum beat begins, which will be the steady rhythm of the cortege as the group walks silently the mile through Arlington to the burial place.

Funerals at Arlington have a strict decorum, a ritual that underlines the solemnity of the occasion, the enormity of the loss.

The casket escorts walk in an exaggerated heel to toe stride with stick straight posture, eyes straight ahead, never averted. Movements are sharp, stylized; uniforms dark and crisp.

The flag-draped casket on the caisson is pulled by three teams of glossy horses, three with riders, three without. It is a rite that is repeated more than 20 times a day. The repetition only underlines the meaning.

At Arlington the flag is at half-mast from a half hour before the first funeral until a half hour after the last funeral every day.

Click here to go to Part Three of
Nathan White’s Burial at Arlington

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