thedrifter
07-24-05, 10:10 AM
Flags adorn soldier's funeral
BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star
OMAHA — There were flags. Across the street from St. Bridget Catholic Church, flags hung from protesters: drooping, dirty, dragging on the ground. A forlorn backdrop to the protesters' signs, which read, among other things, "God hates the U.S.A.," "God hates soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs."
About 10 protesters stood on the sidewalk across from the church where the funeral for Staff Sgt. Tricia Jameson, 34, of Omaha was about to be held. The Nebraska Army National Guard medic, a member of the 313th Medical Company of Lincoln, died in a Humvee ambulance on July 14 as she rushed to the aid of three Marines wounded in an attack on their convoy in western Iraq. She was killed by an improvised explosive device, or IED, less than three weeks after arriving in Iraq.
The sunburned protesters were members of a radical Topeka, Kan., church led by anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps. They have protested at everything from schools to churches across the country, spreading their belief that America is damned because of its tolerance of homosexuals. They're taking their signs to soldiers' funerals, claiming their church was bombed by an IED 10 years ago, and that God is retaliating by killing American soldiers with IEDs in Iraq.
But there were other flags, too.
Such as the one that emerged from a silver hearse, solemnly draped over the coffin of Jameson. Her family exited a limousine and read the signs across the street. Their disgust was palpable, but they maintained their composure.
Did the protesters not understand, some asked one another, that Jameson died defending their right to hold those signs?
Dozens of soldiers in green uniforms — many of whom had worked with Jameson — lined the sidewalk, silently staring at the signs.
The irony was not lost on Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska's adjutant general. He's seen protests before, but nothing like this.
"It always reminds me of how there are difficulties in living in a free society," he said. "That's one of the things we put up with to live in a free society."
The scene was more than Jameson's mother, Pat Marsh, could take. The petite blonde woman crossed the street and asked the protesters to leave, out of respect. The protesters said it's not about her daughter; it's about America.
But today was about her daughter, Marsh said, the girl who never gave her any trouble, from day one — "Like you were given an angel." The girl who didn't tell Mom she'd volunteered for duty in Iraq.
Inside the church, there were more flags.
On a woman's crocheted purse. On a mourner's shirt. Wrapped around the head of a Vietnam veteran decked out in full motorcycle garb leaning against a column in the back of the church.
At the front of the ornate church, the Rev. Rodney Adams quoted Jesus.
"Love one another as I have loved you," he said.
And this: "Everyone who hates is a murderer ... so we ought to lay down our life for our brother."
Jameson, the happy, gung-ho soldier everybody described as a caretaker, died trying to help a fallen soldier, the priest said. She was proud that she was a soldier who helped the injured. She'd trained and trained others for years, but this was her first foray into combat.
Her greatest fear, her mother said, was that she would forget everything she'd learned during training and not be able to save someone. She never got that chance; her mother said 30 pounds of metal tore through the back of her head.
Her death, Rev. Adams said, was caused by "hate and fanaticism."
As the service closed, mourners — including the uniformed National Guard soldiers and the red-blazered retired Marines and the leather-clad Vietnam vets — gave the sign of peace.
"Peace be with you," they said as they shook hands with strangers around them. "Peace be with you."
They all sang "America the Beautiful" as Jameson's casket was carried out of the church.
And when the hearse pulled away from the church, carrying Tricia Jameson to the cemetery for burial, it was guided there by two police motorcycles. Flanked by two small American flags.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
Ellie
Rest In Peace
BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star
OMAHA — There were flags. Across the street from St. Bridget Catholic Church, flags hung from protesters: drooping, dirty, dragging on the ground. A forlorn backdrop to the protesters' signs, which read, among other things, "God hates the U.S.A.," "God hates soldiers" and "Thank God for IEDs."
About 10 protesters stood on the sidewalk across from the church where the funeral for Staff Sgt. Tricia Jameson, 34, of Omaha was about to be held. The Nebraska Army National Guard medic, a member of the 313th Medical Company of Lincoln, died in a Humvee ambulance on July 14 as she rushed to the aid of three Marines wounded in an attack on their convoy in western Iraq. She was killed by an improvised explosive device, or IED, less than three weeks after arriving in Iraq.
The sunburned protesters were members of a radical Topeka, Kan., church led by anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps. They have protested at everything from schools to churches across the country, spreading their belief that America is damned because of its tolerance of homosexuals. They're taking their signs to soldiers' funerals, claiming their church was bombed by an IED 10 years ago, and that God is retaliating by killing American soldiers with IEDs in Iraq.
But there were other flags, too.
Such as the one that emerged from a silver hearse, solemnly draped over the coffin of Jameson. Her family exited a limousine and read the signs across the street. Their disgust was palpable, but they maintained their composure.
Did the protesters not understand, some asked one another, that Jameson died defending their right to hold those signs?
Dozens of soldiers in green uniforms — many of whom had worked with Jameson — lined the sidewalk, silently staring at the signs.
The irony was not lost on Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska's adjutant general. He's seen protests before, but nothing like this.
"It always reminds me of how there are difficulties in living in a free society," he said. "That's one of the things we put up with to live in a free society."
The scene was more than Jameson's mother, Pat Marsh, could take. The petite blonde woman crossed the street and asked the protesters to leave, out of respect. The protesters said it's not about her daughter; it's about America.
But today was about her daughter, Marsh said, the girl who never gave her any trouble, from day one — "Like you were given an angel." The girl who didn't tell Mom she'd volunteered for duty in Iraq.
Inside the church, there were more flags.
On a woman's crocheted purse. On a mourner's shirt. Wrapped around the head of a Vietnam veteran decked out in full motorcycle garb leaning against a column in the back of the church.
At the front of the ornate church, the Rev. Rodney Adams quoted Jesus.
"Love one another as I have loved you," he said.
And this: "Everyone who hates is a murderer ... so we ought to lay down our life for our brother."
Jameson, the happy, gung-ho soldier everybody described as a caretaker, died trying to help a fallen soldier, the priest said. She was proud that she was a soldier who helped the injured. She'd trained and trained others for years, but this was her first foray into combat.
Her greatest fear, her mother said, was that she would forget everything she'd learned during training and not be able to save someone. She never got that chance; her mother said 30 pounds of metal tore through the back of her head.
Her death, Rev. Adams said, was caused by "hate and fanaticism."
As the service closed, mourners — including the uniformed National Guard soldiers and the red-blazered retired Marines and the leather-clad Vietnam vets — gave the sign of peace.
"Peace be with you," they said as they shook hands with strangers around them. "Peace be with you."
They all sang "America the Beautiful" as Jameson's casket was carried out of the church.
And when the hearse pulled away from the church, carrying Tricia Jameson to the cemetery for burial, it was guided there by two police motorcycles. Flanked by two small American flags.
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
Ellie
Rest In Peace