Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed in combat since the Vietnam War, was laid to rest Tursday during a somber ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Hundreds of mourners, many of them in uniform, attended a private memorial service at Joint Base Myers-Henderson Hall before the burial. 

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His wife, Dr. Sue Myers, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, and their son, 1Lt. Matthew J. Greene, saluted his flag-draped coffin as a Howitzer cannon fired a 13-gun salute, in the full military honors that the general was gtiven.  

Two escort platoons, accompanied by a riderless horse, led the caisson that carried his remains from the chapel to the cemetery. After the 13-gun salute, a rifle team from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment fired three volleys, a bugler sounded Taps, and the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own" played "America the Beautiful."

Greene was laid to rest in a section of the cemetery where 879 soldiers who had died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars lay buried.

In addition to his wife and son, he leaves a daughter, Amelia, his father, also Harold, and two brothers.

General Greene, a Boston native, was killed by an Afghan soldier as he was visiting Afghanistan's national military academy in Kabul. The visit was part of this duties as deputy commanding general of the combined security transition command, charged with helping to develop the Afghan National Security Forces.

Army Secretary John McHugh said last week in  statement that "words cannot express the sadness we feel at the senseless loss of Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene. Maj. Gen. Greene was a soldier, a scholar and, above all, a trusted professional leader."

Greene was commissioned as an engineer officer at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He held four master's degrees and a doctorate in materials science from the University of Southern California. 

TagsArlington, General Harold Greene