thedrifter
06-29-07, 05:44 AM
06/29/2007
Marine's sacrifice remembered
By JIM KINNEY , The Saratogian
SARATOGA - Eight Marines in spit-and-polish dress-blue uniforms moved silently Thursday afternoon at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery.
Their brass shone in the noontime sun.
Their movements were deliberate, precise, with snap and flourish even though they had no casket yet. The honor guard was practicing for the funeral of Marine Sgt. Shawn Martin hours before his cortège would arrive with an escort of local motorcycle riders.
The American Flag flew briskly at half-staff at the Cemetery's parade ground. There was also the red flag of the Marine Corps flying in the breeze.
Martin, 30, of Delmar in Albany County was killed in action last week by a roadside bomb in Saglawiyah, Iraq, near Baghdad last week.
The married former volunteer firefighter had been in the country for about a month. Assigned to a bomb-disposal unit, he was on his way to the aid of another Marine unit.
The Martin family asked that reporters not be present for his graveside ceremony.
Sgt. Martin rests now not far from the graves of Army Pfc. Nathan Brown of South Glens Falls, who was killed in action in Iraq on Easter Sunday in 2004, while serving with a Glens Falls-based National Guard unit and Marine Corps Capt. John J. McKenna IV of Clifton Park, killed in action in August 2006 while serving with Fox Company, a Marine Reserve unit based in Albany.
Martin is the fifth man killed in action in Iraq buried in the national cemetery. All told, more than 6,000 veterans have been buried there since it opened eight years ago. Among them is U.S. Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon, a Marine veteran, who spearheaded the legislation to build the cemetery through Congress. The Congress renamed it in his honor following his death in 2001.
Reach Jim Kinney at jkinney@saratogian.com or 518-583-8729 ext.216.
Ellie
Marine's sacrifice remembered
By JIM KINNEY , The Saratogian
SARATOGA - Eight Marines in spit-and-polish dress-blue uniforms moved silently Thursday afternoon at Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery.
Their brass shone in the noontime sun.
Their movements were deliberate, precise, with snap and flourish even though they had no casket yet. The honor guard was practicing for the funeral of Marine Sgt. Shawn Martin hours before his cortège would arrive with an escort of local motorcycle riders.
The American Flag flew briskly at half-staff at the Cemetery's parade ground. There was also the red flag of the Marine Corps flying in the breeze.
Martin, 30, of Delmar in Albany County was killed in action last week by a roadside bomb in Saglawiyah, Iraq, near Baghdad last week.
The married former volunteer firefighter had been in the country for about a month. Assigned to a bomb-disposal unit, he was on his way to the aid of another Marine unit.
The Martin family asked that reporters not be present for his graveside ceremony.
Sgt. Martin rests now not far from the graves of Army Pfc. Nathan Brown of South Glens Falls, who was killed in action in Iraq on Easter Sunday in 2004, while serving with a Glens Falls-based National Guard unit and Marine Corps Capt. John J. McKenna IV of Clifton Park, killed in action in August 2006 while serving with Fox Company, a Marine Reserve unit based in Albany.
Martin is the fifth man killed in action in Iraq buried in the national cemetery. All told, more than 6,000 veterans have been buried there since it opened eight years ago. Among them is U.S. Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon, a Marine veteran, who spearheaded the legislation to build the cemetery through Congress. The Congress renamed it in his honor following his death in 2001.
Reach Jim Kinney at jkinney@saratogian.com or 518-583-8729 ext.216.
Ellie