funeral {dps pilot m. uhl}

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Officer Uhl was laid to rest.  It was an interesting funeral; definitely different than the typical Fallen Officer's funeral.  Back in August, Matt and his wife were at Officer Child's funeral, in Tucson and when they left he told her that he didn't want his funeral anything like Officer Child's.  The "typical" Fallen Officer's funeral is just amazing!  It's a real tribute to the Officer and their contributions to the community.  To each, their own.

Matt was assigned to Kingman Air Rescue and had done some pretty amazing rescues.  His casket was really neat; all of his closest friends and family members took markers and wrote notes to him, on the casket!  Very cool!  At the Vigil, the night before the funeral, his family gathered to celebrate his life.  They drank beer and wrote notes to him and placed them in the empty beer bottles, then put the bottles in his casket!  Heath said the casket was insanely heavy!

At the grave site, they had his helicopter and a helicopter fly-by; it was very beautiful and spiritual to watch.

AZCentral did an article on Officer Uhl here.