In low-key service, a final goodbye to soldier (Andrew J. Bacevich)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/22/in_low_key_service_a_final_goodbye_to_soldier/


In low-key service, a final goodbye to soldier

By Megan Tench, Globe Staff | May 22, 2007

NORWOOD -- The doors to St. Timothy's were opened yesterday morning, allowing sunlight to flood the church foyer. The crowd of more than a thousand mourners hesitated, then rose to their feet.

The coffin carrying Army First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich, killed by a suicide bomber May 13 in Iraq, arrived. And, with their arms linked and their eyes painfully swollen, the soldier's family walked behind him.

"Nine days ago, two phone calls came to the rectory in rapid succession" with news of Bacevich's death, the Rev. John Culloty told the crowd, who included Governor Deval Patrick, Senator John F. Kerry, and former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey. "Each one brought the news we all feared. All of our prayers we had offered for his safe return had not been answered as we had hoped. Our worst nightmare had come true."

As US casualties in Iraq mount, the death of Bacevich, 27, has drawn particular attention because his father has been an ardent critic of what he has called an immoral war and a "catastrophic failure." The elder Bacevich retired as an Army colonel after serving in Vietnam and is now a professor history and international relations at Boston University.

Yesterday, there was no mention of the professor's opposition to the war in a service largely void of the pomp and ceremony that often accompany military funerals.

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Related article:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014135.php

Oh, right. My bad. :grr:

I was happy to read that.