The highest-ranking U.S. military officer to be killed in America's post-9/11 wars was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday afternoon.
Two-star Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene general was an engineer who worked his way up through the ranks in a 34-year Army career. Most of it was spent developing, building and supplying soldiers with equipment and technology.
Greene's deployment to Afghanistan in January was his first to a war zone. He was killed on Aug. 5 when a gunman believed to be an Afghan soldier opened fire at a military academy near Kabul.
Thursday soldiers took the American flag that covered Greene's coffin and folded it, and Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno placed it in the hands of Greene's wife. His children, including a son who followed his father into the Army, also received a flag. Then each member of the family placed a rose upon his coffin.
Greene's elderly father stepped up, too, saluting his son.
Two Afghan generals were also killed in the shooting. The gunman was killed after shooting his automatic weapon from a window, an Afghan intelligence source told NBC News.
Greene, 55, and his wife, Susan, lived in Falls Church, Virginia, with their children. His son, Matthew, also is in the Army, and their daughter, Amelia, recently graduated from Binghamton University in New York.
