Patriot Guard riders stand outside in the sun as Mike Battery 314, Marines salute during the funeral of USMC Sgt. Tyler Skelly on Monday at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

USMC Sgt. Tyler Skelly's photo is displayed on the windshield of a Patriot Guard motorcycle during his funeral Monday at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

When a funeral service was held Monday afternoon at Chattanooga National Cemetery for U.S. Marine Sgt. Tyler Skelly, a uniformed Marine knelt before the veteran's mother, Stacy Skelly, and presented her with the folded U.S. flag from her son's casket.

The next two men who knelt to comfort the grieving mother wore a different kind of uniform: jeans, T-shirts and denim vests bearing the patches of their motorcycle club, the Patriot Guard Riders.

"He was a true American hero," said Robert McMullen, a lean, white-bearded Vietnam vet as he pressed a motorcycle club coin into her hand.

With U.S. flags flying, close to 30 members of the biker's club accompanied the funeral procession for Skelly, 26, from a chapel in his hometown of Dalton, Ga., to the historic cemetery in Chattanooga.

The family asked the bikers to be there.

"The family contacts us," said Harve "Big Harve" Roach, a biker who served in the Army, including 18 months in Vietnam. Roach figures he's ridden his motorcycle with the Patriot Guard Riders in close to 200 veterans' funeral processions.

Founded in 2005, the nationwide, all-volunteer nonprofit organizations's mission, its website says, is to appear at funerals of military personnel and emergency responders and "shield the mourning family and their friends from interruptions created by any protester or group of protesters."

Though the group's website doesn't mention it, the Patriot Guard Riders have rallied to intervene against protesters from Westboro Baptist Church, which is notorious for its protests at military funerals because the church blames U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq on the U.S.'s tolerance of homosexuality.

Sgt. Skelly died on April 29 at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. He had been ill since 2011 when he had a seizure during his second tour of duty in the Middle East and fell and hit his head on concrete, suffering a brain injury.

Georgia Legion rider Tony Propst, center, of Calhoun, Ga., and Patriot Guard rider Warren Brake begin to put their American flags away following the funeral of USMC Sgt. Tyler Skelly on Monday at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Among the mourners Monday was Jake Strong, of Rome, Ga., who served with Skelly in Iraq.

"He was a really good friend, a good Marine," Strong said. "Sarcastic, goofy, willing to help you out all the time."

Strong, who rides a motorcycle, thinks he will join the Patriot Guard Riders someday.

"I think it's amazing what they do," Strong said. "They served before, and they're still serving today."

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com