thedrifter
02-23-07, 07:08 AM
Semper Fidelis
By MICHAEL L. OWENS
The News Virginian
Friday, February 23, 2007
RAPHINE - Carol Wendell stared skyward and swallowed several gulps of air before accepting the flag that had draped her son’s casket.
Minutes earlier, a bagpipe had droned “Amazing Grace” and a Marine honor guard fired 21 shots for her 19-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris.
Wendell’s remaining teenage son, Jonathan, shook in his seat beside her and stared at the tree line in the distance as a Marine handed her the folded flag. Until that moment, he had stared vacantly toward the ground with drooped head and shoulders, like most other family members.
In the New Providence Presbyterian Church cemetery, overlooking the open fields and rolling hills of Raphine, Morris was laid to rest Thursday down the road from his mother’s home. It was where he would want to be, his mother had said in a previous interview.
“… Mothers aren’t supposed to bury their young before their time … it’s an evil world,” pastor Christopher L. Crotwell said during the earlier church service.
Morris, he said, refused to surrender to the evils of the world. Refused to surrender to a world where some people must choose between electricity bills or medicine, or even have to live under the tyranny of dictators.
Instead, the teenager decided to make a difference by donning a uniform and agreeing to fight.
“How can you not admire the courage … of Lance Cpl. Daniel Morris? How can you not miss someone like that?” Crotwell said.
Morris died on Valentine’s Day, from the mine he found in a car stopped at an Anbar province checkpoint. He joined the Marines shortly after graduating in 2005 from Wilson Memorial High, where he played trumpet for the marching band. He also became a familiar face in the community from working at the McDonald’s in the Staunton Wal-Mart, as well as in Community Development in the Augusta County Government Center.
His hearse arrived at the church amidst the rumble of a motorcycle escort and the flashing lights of the following sheriff’s deputies.
An honor guard of eight Marines carried him inside the church to the medley of one Marine’s marching orders and the wind flap of about a dozen red-white-and-blue flags.
Inside, hundreds packed the pews and side aisles while even more jammed the balcony horseshoed along the church’s high, white walls.
Tears took a brief respite and some smiles broke out when family friend and Vietnam vet Ed West described first meeting Morris.
“Lance Cpl. Daniel Morris made dress blues look good,” West said.
The harsh solemnity returned when West compared Morris to the heroes he fought and nearly died with in Vietnam.
“God bless … and Semper Fi,” West concluded.
Contact Michael L. Owens at mowens@newsvirginian.com.
Ellie
By MICHAEL L. OWENS
The News Virginian
Friday, February 23, 2007
RAPHINE - Carol Wendell stared skyward and swallowed several gulps of air before accepting the flag that had draped her son’s casket.
Minutes earlier, a bagpipe had droned “Amazing Grace” and a Marine honor guard fired 21 shots for her 19-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris.
Wendell’s remaining teenage son, Jonathan, shook in his seat beside her and stared at the tree line in the distance as a Marine handed her the folded flag. Until that moment, he had stared vacantly toward the ground with drooped head and shoulders, like most other family members.
In the New Providence Presbyterian Church cemetery, overlooking the open fields and rolling hills of Raphine, Morris was laid to rest Thursday down the road from his mother’s home. It was where he would want to be, his mother had said in a previous interview.
“… Mothers aren’t supposed to bury their young before their time … it’s an evil world,” pastor Christopher L. Crotwell said during the earlier church service.
Morris, he said, refused to surrender to the evils of the world. Refused to surrender to a world where some people must choose between electricity bills or medicine, or even have to live under the tyranny of dictators.
Instead, the teenager decided to make a difference by donning a uniform and agreeing to fight.
“How can you not admire the courage … of Lance Cpl. Daniel Morris? How can you not miss someone like that?” Crotwell said.
Morris died on Valentine’s Day, from the mine he found in a car stopped at an Anbar province checkpoint. He joined the Marines shortly after graduating in 2005 from Wilson Memorial High, where he played trumpet for the marching band. He also became a familiar face in the community from working at the McDonald’s in the Staunton Wal-Mart, as well as in Community Development in the Augusta County Government Center.
His hearse arrived at the church amidst the rumble of a motorcycle escort and the flashing lights of the following sheriff’s deputies.
An honor guard of eight Marines carried him inside the church to the medley of one Marine’s marching orders and the wind flap of about a dozen red-white-and-blue flags.
Inside, hundreds packed the pews and side aisles while even more jammed the balcony horseshoed along the church’s high, white walls.
Tears took a brief respite and some smiles broke out when family friend and Vietnam vet Ed West described first meeting Morris.
“Lance Cpl. Daniel Morris made dress blues look good,” West said.
The harsh solemnity returned when West compared Morris to the heroes he fought and nearly died with in Vietnam.
“God bless … and Semper Fi,” West concluded.
Contact Michael L. Owens at mowens@newsvirginian.com.
Ellie