When the body is flown home, a soldier is assigned to fly with the body and salute as the body is loaded in and out of the plane (even if the body is just being transferred between flights). Then, there is the American flag, draped over the casket. There is a specific way of folding and draping the flag. Funeral directors’ groups online have knock-down drag-out fights over what they say are improperly draped flags (correct way: blue field of stars over the person’s left shoulder.)
