No soldier should fall alone.

Or be forgotten.

Grady Moss believed that.

Believed it with all his heart, and it kept him making telephone calls after he got cancer.

When he got sick, he’d been chaplain of the Rowan County Veterans Council for more than 40 years and captain of the military honors committee for 15 to 20 years, and that meant getting on the phone when a veteran died so he would be put to his final rest with honor.

It meant finding somebody to call cadence, to be on the firing squad, to fold the flag, to say the prayer, to ...

To be there.

Their families needed to know a fallen comrade who had offered his service — and his life — for his country wouldn’t be forgotten.

“And sometimes,” Grady Moss said, “we don’t have any member of a family at a funeral.”

So for themselves they needed to know that proper homage was being paid even to a soldier without a family.

So until he died he lined up the military honor guard and told them how to get to any church in the county if the service wasn’t going to be at the National Cemetery and even kept the rifles for the firing squad under lock and key.

But he wasn’t the only one who died.

So did Ben Holbrook.

And Bob Richardson.

And other faithfuls on Grady’s list.

So now, when Buddy Kyles, who’s now in charge of the military honor guard, turns to that list on his refrigerator and begins to dial the numbers, he has less names to call.

But as the honor guard list grows shorter, the list of veterans whose families want military rites grows longer.

The numbers are difficult to put a finger on.

A thousand World War II veterans in the United States are dying every week. And it’s estimated the rate of death of veterans will increase every year until 2015 when it will begin to slack off.

Add that to the fact that the Salisbury cemetery is the only national cemetery open in North Carolina, so families bring their veterans here from all over the state and out-of-state.

Then understand that the Veterans Council provides military rites in Rowan not only at the National Cemetery but also at city and church cemeteries.

And the problem is clear.

Ellis Smith, program assistant at the Salisbury National Cemetery, says it averages about eight funerals a week and he expects slightly more than 400 in 2001.

All families, of course, don’t ask for military rites.

But a lot do.

Last year the council’s honor guard did 195 services; the year before, 190.

“This year,” Buddy Kyles says, “we’ve done 80 or 85.”

The record is four funerals in one day. But many days have two and three.

“The answer,” says Ralph Bennett, director of the National Cemetery, “is for more younger veterans to step up to help the older veterans. The 80-year-olds are doing the work.”

Another problem, says Ellis Smith, is that most funerals are during the day when the younger people work.

“We need some of the younger retired veterans to step up and take on these duties, veterans in their early 60s.”

George Smith, president of the Veterans Council, says 14 men have been members of the honor guard, including Kyles, who’s the youngest at 61, Burl Smith, who’s the oldest at 86, and Howard Haynes, Rayford Graham, Willie Granford, William Leach, Roy Leazer, Willie Morgan, Roy Morris, Lewis Reid, Homer Robertson, Ben Smith, Marcelle Williams and Bob Rogers.

“We’ve got two new ones, James Williams and David Shaver,” Buddy Kyles says, “and two we can call on the weekends — Pinky Trexler and Homer Robertson.”

But several work and can only participate on weekends.

“It takes 10 for a funeral,” George Smith says.

“Twelve,” Buddy Kyles adds, “to put a flag-bearer on both ends. But if we get seven people there, we feel lucky.”

And about seven are regulars.

“Sometimes on the weekend we might get a few extra, but some work 30 to 40 hours a week doing this. They need some relief. We’re trying to take care of everybody — if somebody comes from Florida or New York or South Carolina. If we don’t get help, we’ll have to stop and only do it for Rowan.”

“Our goal,” says George Smith, “is to have enough volunteers to rotate personnel for each funeral. Help would be greatly appreciated.”

The council is made up of 23 veterans groups, Kyles points out.

“If each post would let us have two men, we would have more than enough.”

But still there would be problems. Military rites cost.

“We don’t get anything for this,” he says, “but we take donations so the Council can pay for shipping and handling ammunition, stuff like that. We bought overcoats for the firing squad so we could all be in uniform. We’re trying to keep everybody looking basically the same way.”

And there are those rifles. The Veterans Council got them in 1946. They’re obsolete, and with the wear and tear ...

To replace them, he says, would take an act of Congress.

But the honor guard’s duty, he adds, never grows routine.

“When you have to bury one of your own men, that’s when it hurts,” he says.

And now that he’s in charge and speaks briefly during the service on behalf of the honor guard, he hurts more but he knows how important it is.

“People come up afterwards and shake your hand, hug your neck.

“And when we play taps before we fold the flag ... That taps is a lonely sounding thing to someone who has just lost someone, so we try to express to the family that they’re not alone. We’re there for them, if they need us.

“Families write us letters, send us cards, tell us, ‘My daddy would have been proud ... ’

“I’m not complaining about doing the funerals,” Buddy Kyles says. “We do them because we want to.

“But we’re in bad shape.

“I’ll put it his way.

“We’re talking about folding this thing up. If we don’t get help, that’s all we’re going to be able to do.”

Anyone who wants to join the Military Honor Guard should call Buddy Kyles at 704-637-6552.

Contact Rose Post at 704-797-4251 or rpost@salisbury.com .