thedrifter
09-17-06, 07:55 AM
Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
Community honors fallen Marine
Fellow fighters recall reliability, wide smile
KIRSTEN VALLE
kvalle@charlotteobserver.com
It was quiet inside the US Airways cargo building Thursday. A lone Marine stood rigid in dress blues beside the hearse.
A van entered and five more Marines got out. They adjusted their hats, and a US Airways worker removed his, tucking the brim into the back of his pants.
The body of Lance Cpl. Cliff Golla, a 21-year-old killed in Iraq on Sept. 1, had come home to Charlotte.
The Marines hoisted a flag-draped casket from the van and eased it into the hearse. Then the warehouse door rolled open and the Marines spilled into the sunlight. The hearse followed, and so did a handful of cargo workers, squinting after it.
They wanted to know if a local boy was inside.
Late Friday evening, the stands were filling at Providence High School, where Golla graduated. Students there honored him with a flag salute.
His younger sister, Scarlet, and his older sister, Lynette Ingram, were there. So were Lynette's husband, Wayne, and Golla's fiancée, Melissa Zinkeler.
Zinkeler, 20, wore a navy-blue dress and the ring Golla gave her a few months ago.
"I haven't taken it off," she said. "It's going to be hard."
Later that evening, the mourners were already filling St. Matthew Catholic Church when Zinkeler and the others arrived for the wake. Relatives from Poland rushed over to Golla's parents, Chris and Yvonna, who came to America in the 1980s, and friends gave one another long hugs.
Golla's family had set out mementos: a high school diploma, photos of Golla in his uniform and as a child. He was handsome even then, with a swipe of light brown hair and a wide smile.
"Such a good-looking boy," a woman in line said.
"It's so sad," said another. "I wish I could take it all away."
Among the photos, there was a poem Golla had written: "How curious the fallen look. ... He who was so full of animation a few moments ago now dies eternally inanimate. You are alive; a future is still yours."
Golla died near Habbaniyah in central Iraq in a roadside bombing. He was serving a second tour in Iraq, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, Lima Company, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune.
Fellow Marines said in interviews last week he was reliable; friends said he had a big heart.
"Nobody in the world knows me like Cliff," said Eric Schattler, one of Golla's best friends. "He was a good soul. Still is a good soul."
Longtime friends Josh and Kissha Robbins said their kids adored Golla. After he died, the children asked if they could play with him when they get to heaven.
Golla was a prankster, said classmate Brandon Hellman.
"We were all a bunch of troublemakers, cutting class, skipping school, you name it," he said. "We reached a point, though, where we knew we had to grow up, and he made a decision to go to the Marines."
Golla loved the Marines, but he hated leaving home.
"He was scared -- it's war, who wouldn't be scared? -- but he wasn't scared to the point where he didn't want to go back," Hellman said.
Hellman didn't cry when he visited the funeral home Thursday, because Golla told him not to, he said.
"He predicted it," Hellman said. "He told us, `I'm not coming home.' "
Two days after the news came, Hellman had Golla's portrait, birth and death dates and military rank tattooed over his ribs.
"Cliff was always beside me," he said. "Even through death, he'll still be by my side."
At the funeral Saturday morning, the Patriot Guard Riders, motorcyclists who visit military funerals nationwide, lined the church entry. They held American flags, never breaking rank.
Six Marines guided Golla's casket to the altar, and Monsignor John McSweeney blessed it with incense and holy water.
Near the service's end, Capt. Eric Jones presented Golla's family with a Purple Heart and told them Golla "became part of something greater than himself."
As friends and family left for the burial, the church bells sounded.
At Crown Memorial Park in Pineville, people in the crowd flinched as seven men fired three shots in Golla's honor. A woman started to cry as a bugler played taps.
"It's just so hard," a man whispered. "He had so many best friends."
Marines removed the flag from Golla's casket and folded it neatly. The family set red and white roses in its place and leaned over the casket, resting their heads against it for a moment.
Then the Marines gave a final salute, and a man lowered the casket into the ground.
Kirsten Valle: 704-358-6043
Ellie
Community honors fallen Marine
Fellow fighters recall reliability, wide smile
KIRSTEN VALLE
kvalle@charlotteobserver.com
It was quiet inside the US Airways cargo building Thursday. A lone Marine stood rigid in dress blues beside the hearse.
A van entered and five more Marines got out. They adjusted their hats, and a US Airways worker removed his, tucking the brim into the back of his pants.
The body of Lance Cpl. Cliff Golla, a 21-year-old killed in Iraq on Sept. 1, had come home to Charlotte.
The Marines hoisted a flag-draped casket from the van and eased it into the hearse. Then the warehouse door rolled open and the Marines spilled into the sunlight. The hearse followed, and so did a handful of cargo workers, squinting after it.
They wanted to know if a local boy was inside.
Late Friday evening, the stands were filling at Providence High School, where Golla graduated. Students there honored him with a flag salute.
His younger sister, Scarlet, and his older sister, Lynette Ingram, were there. So were Lynette's husband, Wayne, and Golla's fiancée, Melissa Zinkeler.
Zinkeler, 20, wore a navy-blue dress and the ring Golla gave her a few months ago.
"I haven't taken it off," she said. "It's going to be hard."
Later that evening, the mourners were already filling St. Matthew Catholic Church when Zinkeler and the others arrived for the wake. Relatives from Poland rushed over to Golla's parents, Chris and Yvonna, who came to America in the 1980s, and friends gave one another long hugs.
Golla's family had set out mementos: a high school diploma, photos of Golla in his uniform and as a child. He was handsome even then, with a swipe of light brown hair and a wide smile.
"Such a good-looking boy," a woman in line said.
"It's so sad," said another. "I wish I could take it all away."
Among the photos, there was a poem Golla had written: "How curious the fallen look. ... He who was so full of animation a few moments ago now dies eternally inanimate. You are alive; a future is still yours."
Golla died near Habbaniyah in central Iraq in a roadside bombing. He was serving a second tour in Iraq, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, Lima Company, 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune.
Fellow Marines said in interviews last week he was reliable; friends said he had a big heart.
"Nobody in the world knows me like Cliff," said Eric Schattler, one of Golla's best friends. "He was a good soul. Still is a good soul."
Longtime friends Josh and Kissha Robbins said their kids adored Golla. After he died, the children asked if they could play with him when they get to heaven.
Golla was a prankster, said classmate Brandon Hellman.
"We were all a bunch of troublemakers, cutting class, skipping school, you name it," he said. "We reached a point, though, where we knew we had to grow up, and he made a decision to go to the Marines."
Golla loved the Marines, but he hated leaving home.
"He was scared -- it's war, who wouldn't be scared? -- but he wasn't scared to the point where he didn't want to go back," Hellman said.
Hellman didn't cry when he visited the funeral home Thursday, because Golla told him not to, he said.
"He predicted it," Hellman said. "He told us, `I'm not coming home.' "
Two days after the news came, Hellman had Golla's portrait, birth and death dates and military rank tattooed over his ribs.
"Cliff was always beside me," he said. "Even through death, he'll still be by my side."
At the funeral Saturday morning, the Patriot Guard Riders, motorcyclists who visit military funerals nationwide, lined the church entry. They held American flags, never breaking rank.
Six Marines guided Golla's casket to the altar, and Monsignor John McSweeney blessed it with incense and holy water.
Near the service's end, Capt. Eric Jones presented Golla's family with a Purple Heart and told them Golla "became part of something greater than himself."
As friends and family left for the burial, the church bells sounded.
At Crown Memorial Park in Pineville, people in the crowd flinched as seven men fired three shots in Golla's honor. A woman started to cry as a bugler played taps.
"It's just so hard," a man whispered. "He had so many best friends."
Marines removed the flag from Golla's casket and folded it neatly. The family set red and white roses in its place and leaned over the casket, resting their heads against it for a moment.
Then the Marines gave a final salute, and a man lowered the casket into the ground.
Kirsten Valle: 704-358-6043
Ellie