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Editor's note: Washington Producer John Rutherford posts a weekly blog on burials of service members at Arlington National Cemetery. Since there were no public burials this past week, we are posting the burial of a highly decorated Green Beret on May 31, right after Memorial Day.
Headstone by headstone, row by row, Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery is slowly filling with the casualties from Iraq.
Umbrell, Colby. Pursel, Michael. Murphy, Christopher. On May 31 it was Conner, Bradly. Number 341.
Sgt. Maj. Bradly Conner, 41, a highly decorated Green Beret on this fourth tour in Iraq, was killed May 9 by a roadside bomb. As an Army band played "America the Beautiful" in the distance, he was buried at Arlington Cemetery.
Conner's widow, Cynthia, and their three children, Aaron, 14, Katie, 12, and Rachel, 6, were among the many tearful mourners.
Photo courtesy USASOC News Service
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Link to thisEditor's note: Washington Producer John Rutherford writes a weekly blog on the soldiers and Marines buried at Arlington National Cemetery. There were no public burials this past week, so he is writing instead on a Purple Heart ceremony today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Small-town America is bleeding for the rest of the country.
A disproportionate number of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be from towns most Americans have never heard of, towns like Gladys, Va., Clinton, Utah, and Spring Lake, N.C.
At a ceremony today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 19 soldiers, most of them from similar small towns, were awarded Purple Hearts. We asked some of them why they joined the Army.
"My dad did three tours in Vietnam, my brother was infantry," Sgt. Blayne Sheets, 21, of Berea, Ohio (pop. 18,970), said. "I just thought I'd do my part, too."
For Spc. Evan McQuistun, 24, of Trenton, Fla. (pop. 1,617), the reason was more practical.
"For a job," he said. "There's not a lot of places to work in Trenton."
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Arm-in-arm with a military escort, Joanne Sutton led the procession of mourners to the graveside service for her husband, Army Sgt. 1st Class Greg Sutton, who was killed June 6 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
Mrs. Sutton, 3-year-old daughter Cailee, and 2-year-old son Greg Jr., were among family and friends gathered Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery for Sgt. Sutton's burial.
For Greg Lamonte Sutton, 38, of Spring Lake, N.C., the Army was a way of life. His father, Sgt. 1st Class Claude Sutton, served in the Army for more than 20 years, mostly with the 82nd Airborne Division. Greg Sutton followed his father into the Army but not into the 82nd Airborne.
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Army Sgt. Charles Wyckoff, who was buried today at Arlington National Cemetery, always managed to stay out of trouble growing up in Chula Vista, Calif.
"He was the good one," his aunt, Tina Perez, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "All of our nephews were in prison. He never got into gangs, he never got into drugs."
Wyckoff was also the first member of his family to graduate from college. He earned a degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona.
"He was a winner in our family," his aunt told the Union-Tribune.
Caption: Sgt. Charles E. Wyckoff poses before the U.S. flag in this photo courtesy of the 82nd Airborne Division.
Discuss (10 comments) Email this | Link to thisThe burials at Arlington National Cemetery are becoming interconnected.
On May 29, Cpl. Christopher Murphy of Gladys, Va., was buried. He was killed in an ambush on May 12 in Iraq.
A week later, it was Cpl. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, Calif. He was captured in the same ambush. His body was found floating in the Euphrates River 11 days later.
Today, Staff Sgt. Joseph Weiglein of Audubon, N.J., was laid to rest. He was killed by a roadside bomb on May 29 while searching for two other soldiers captured in that ambush.
Several busloads of Weiglein's friends came down from New Jersey to pay final respects to the man known affectionately back home as "Sergeant Joe."
Discuss (8 comments) Email this | Link to thisCpl. Joseph Anzack Jr., the soldier whose body was found floating in the Euphrates River two weeks ago, was buried today at Arlington National Cemetery, ending a cruel ordeal for his family.
Anzack's mother, father, and younger sister comforted each other during the brief graveside service for the 20-year-old gunner who, like so many of those buried around him, played high school football and couldn't wait to join the Army.
"One of those kids who would run through a wall for you," his high school coach told the Los Angeles Times.
Photo caption: Joseph Anzack Sr. mourns at the gravesite of his son. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Discuss (172 comments) Email this | Link to thisEditor's note: Producer John Rutherford often covers military funerals for the Washington bureau. He filed this note in the internal NBC computer system and we were moved enough to share.
As the fighting in Iraq increases, so do the number of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. Today, two men killed in the war were buried, including a celebrated Marine Corps major known as "the lion of Fallujah."
The Marine band and a 60-member Marine honor guard escorted the casket of Marine Maj. Douglas Zembiec to his grave. Navy Chaplain Lt. Cmdr. Ray Houk could be heard exhorting the huge crowd, "We are all Marines," and Zembiec's widow Pamela was clutching an American flag long after the service ended.
Discuss (17 comments) Email this | Link to thisWe huddled in one office this morning watching the British sailors and Royal Marines talk about their experience. We watched live on MSNBC, and the coverage was followed by a blistering commentary by Col. Jack Jacobs (ret.), NBC News military analyst and Medal of Honor recipient. We'll be airing some of Jack's comments on the broadcast -- his views won't be shared by all -- hear him out, however -- and if you still have trouble understanding the ethos he represents, may I again recommend the best-ever collection of stories about Medal of Honor recipients.
Another decoration is in the news. Purple Hearts were given out today, and while they're given out most days, this ceremony was special. I'm posting here the internal coverage note that our own Washington Producer John Rutherford distributed in our in-house computer system. As you read through his reporting, please pay special note to his final paragraph. He granted me permission to include it in this space.
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