When a veteran of the United States Air Force passed away with no family or friends, hundreds of strangers stepped up to give him the sendoff he deserved.

Staff Sgt. Lyndon Badgett, 57, passed away this month having outlasted all of his family and friends. For weeks, it seemed like he would be buried alone in Clarksville, Tennessee, but hundreds of residents were not going to let that happen.

“No veteran should be left to leave here alone after spending their time serving this country,” said Mark Harris, one of the funeral attendees.

The Gateway Funeral Home in Clarksville spent weeks trying to find Badgett’s next of kin, but they came up with nobody. Not wanting to bury him alone, the funeral home took to Facebook to call for people to come and honor him at his final resting place.

They were stunned by the overwhelming response they got.

“I expected a lot of people, but I have to say that I was shocked at the numbers that were there and the outpouring of people and the distances that came,” said Wade Winkler, who is the funeral director for Gateway Funeral Home.

The funeral home covered all costs of the memorial service, and Badgett received full military honors. The casket, which was draped in the American flag, was carried into Middle Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery as many of the attendees shed tears.

One of the attendees was Army veteran Sylvia Melton, who said she knew Badgett from the nursing home that they both lived in before his death. She travelled fifty miles just to be at the funeral.

“We was told he had nobody,” Melton said. “As a veteran, you never let somebody die by themselves. You come out and you honor them.”

Arthur Jester, another friend from Badgett’s nursing home, described him as a “hell of a good guy” whose presence would be missed.

“He was the kind of guy, you could talk to today and you know he’s a good guy,” he said. “He never said nothing bad about nobody. That was the kind of guy he was.”

The night before the funeral, the funeral home received a call from a woman claiming to be Badgett’s daughter. She told Winkler that while she could not attend the funeral, she approved of everything they were doing for her dad.

“One thing I did tell his daughter is that, ‘he will not be alone,'” Winkler said, “And that came true.”