A Kentucky woman's social media post is reaching viewers far beyond what she'd ever expected.
Erin Hester snapped this photo on July 6, while at an intersection on the Joe Prather Highway at 144, showing a uniformed soldier standing at attention outside his Jeep in the pouring rain. She watched as he saluted an oncoming funeral procession. He didn't return to his vehicle until the last car passed.
She later posted the photo to her Instagram and Facebook pages, gaining close to 130,000 shares and 184,000 likes in the last week.
"I never realized the amount of true power social media has until now," Hester told WHAS 11 News.
Included in the photo's caption, Hester wrote, "I always get frustrated when I see cars that don't pull to the side and stop for a procession, but this gentleman went above and beyond. I feel pretty confident that there isn't a military rule that soldiers have to do this. This made my heart happy to see the amount of respect that this gentleman showed a family that he doesn't even know. #values #respect."
Hester doesn't know who the soldier is and or whose funeral procession passed by, but the soldier's act of respect continues to create waves of emotion.
12 News' sister station WHAS 11 was able to locate the soldier in Hester's photo. He is Col Jack L. Usrey, a Senior Army Advisor with the Tennessee Army National Guard.
He responded to us and wanted us to put it out there that his home state raised him right.
"I also owe it to my parents, Jim and Judy Usrey, from Martin, TN. They taught me to do this from when I have memory," said Usrey.
"I'm humbled and surprised at the reaction to such a simple gesture. My first thoughts were about how the bad weather can't be helping how the family feels and I was hoping my small action would let them know we care."
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