The following video will make you cry, think and then cry all over again.
It features a U.S. army widow breaking down in tears over her fallen husband"s coffin after it touches down on an airport tarmac.
The soldier inside is named Shawn Thomas – and the 35-year old Green Beret was killed in a car accident on February 2 while deployed in Niger, Africa.
According to his obituary, Thomas shared four kids( Cheyenne, Taylor, Gavin and Natylyn) with his wife, Tara Thomas. The family was based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Last Tuesday, Shawn"s flag-draped coffin arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in Morrisville, North Carolina.
A passenger on the plane that carried the coffin, Lisa West Williams, was so moved by Tara"s reaction upon seeing it that she filmed the scene and shared the footage on Facebook.
She did so with Tara"s permission. Even with her encouragement.
"She wanted people to realize that this goes on every day," Williams told WNCT-TV, adding:
"There are many men and women that come home in a casket and they"ve made the ultimate sacrifice for us."
"It was heartbreaking," Williams also told WNCT. "Never seen anything like it before."
The Facebook video, which depicts the cries of other passengers watching Tara say goodbye to her husband, has been viewed over eight million times.
"It was an honor to fly home with this PATRIOT! God bless his wife and family. There was not a dry eye around me," Williams wrote as a caption to it.
Shawn – who was honored with two Bronze Stars and four Good Conduct Medals during his service – will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Watch the heartbreaking video below and then join us in giving thanks to every soldier out there:
