83 Year Old Vet Keeps Promise To Fellow Marine Until The Very End

I have a really soft spot for the elderly (no offense meant to anyone here. The man is 83. Like it or not… he’ s old.) and for our veterans… put those together, it’s a recipe for RIVERS OF TEARS.

This isn’t a sad story… it’s an absolutely beautiful. My heart is simultaneously broken and so, so full….

I’m drowning in tears right now, folks. DROWNING.

According to this:

An 83-year-old retired Marine kept a promise he made to a fellow officer while they were hunkered down in a bunker during the Vietnam War.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. William H. Cox and Retired Marine First Sgt. James ‘Hollie’ Hollingsworth were shielding themselves from rockets and mortars in 1968 as they were fighting in the Marble Mountains during the war on New Year’s Eve.

The two men, who were strangers to each other, had decided if they made it out of the bunker and survived the war, they would contact each other every New Year’s Eve.

For the next five decades they kept that promise – every New Year’s Eve they would catch up.

Earlier this year, Cox traveled from Piedmont, South Carolina, to see Hollingsworth, 80, in Hephzibah, Georgia.

The 83-year-old made the trip so that he could say goodbye to his dear friend who was dying.

While visiting, Hollingsworth asked his buddy to make him one last promise.

He asked him to stand guard over his casket and deliver the eulogy at his funeral, to which Cox accepted.

‘I said, “Boy, that’s a rough mission you’re assigning me to there,”‘ Cox told Greenvilleonline.com.

Oh, my heart. I seriously can’t take it.

His son said the last thing Cox told Hollingsworth was a phrase they often exchanged when they closed their conversations – ‘Hollie, you keep ’em flying, and I’ll keep ’em firing.’

Cox, who served in the Marine helicopter squadron VMO-2 with Hollingsworth, made sure to keep his final promise when the time came months later.

The 83-year-old put on his dress blues and stood guard over his friend’s casket during his funeral service on October 20.

He also delivered a heartfelt eulogy for Hollingsworth – whom he flew over 200 combat missions with during their time in the Marines.

How did he end the emotional eulogy?

You guessed it.

‘Hollie, you keep ’em flying, and I’ll keep ’em firing.’