Protestors from a Kansas church known for picketing soldiers' funerals failed to show Monday afternoon at rites in Cleveland for Sgt. David Weir, who was killed in Iraq.
But about 70 members of the Patriot Guard motorcycle corps did - along with many other local flagwavers.
Bradley County authorities had a spot marked off for the protestors. It was in a field across from Fike Funeral Home - 300 feet away.
The field stayed empty as the private funeral services went on inside the funeral home.
The body was taken afterwards to the National Cemetery in Chattanooga for burial. There were also no protestors there. Instead, there were more people waving flags, including some along freeway overpasses.
Students at Senter School and guardsmen at the National Guard Armory stood at attention on Holtzclaw Avenue.
Nick Perry of the Patriot Guard said the group of motorcyclists regularly go to the funerals of fallen service personnel and sometimes tangle with the Kansas picketers. He also said they sometimes do not show up when they say they will.
The group had vowed to protest at the Weir funeral and members of the Weir family had made a plea for them not to disrupt the funeral.
The group is anti-homosexual and believes the terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, was a judgment from God on America.
Mr. Perry said the picketers "are not fun. They chant and they have ugly signs saying things like, 'Your son was a fag.'"
He said members of his group shield the picketers from families by a wall of American flags and they sing songs like "God Bless America" to drown out the chants.