Army Widow Breaks Down After Meeting Her Husband’s Coffin on Airport Tarmac

A moving moment of a military widow greeting her husband’s coffin has gone viral, showing the devastating and personal impact of war on a family.

Green Beret Shawn Thomas was killed in a car accident while on deployment in Niger, Africa. According to his obituary, it was Thomas’ “8th deployment defending our freedom while doing a job that he loved.” Thomas and his wife, Tori, had four children together.

Lisa West Williams was a passenger on the plane and was simply waiting to exit the aircraft when she saw a flag-draped coffin being removed from the plane. Williams then took out her phone to capture the moment when Thomas’ wife approached the coffin.

When meeting the coffin, Tori Thomas placed her hand on the U.S. flag and broke down into tears for a very emotional moment.

“It was an honor to fly home with this PATRIOT!” wrote Williams on her Facebook post. “God bless his wife and family. There was not a dry eye around me.”

Thomas was awarded two Bronze Stars and four Good Conduct Medals for his time in the army.

“It was heartbreaking,” Lisa West Williams told North Carolina television station WNCT-TV. “Never seen anything like it before. She did thank me for the video and she wanted it to be shared. She wanted people to realize that this goes on every day. There are many men and women that come home in a casket and they’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for us.”

Thomas will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.