5
“What turn?” Talia said.
“The Navy honored my request to have Golan’s personal items placed into a casket. But that casket was not sent to our home in Tel Aviv.”
“It was sent to the United States, wasn’t it?” She looked at him. “You thought the Navy would ship the casket to Israel.”
“That is correct,” the old man replied. “Since Israel wasn’t yet officially recognized by the United States as a sovereign nation, it was the policy of the Navy to ship remains back to the States.”
“But,” she pointed at him again, “you were sent on bereavement leave. And since your family was in Israel, that’s where they sent you, didn’t they?”
“Yes. My brother’s casket in one direction, myself in another. While we were at sea, the casket was offloaded to a sister ship and taken to the harbor. But our s
