Locals turn out in force to mourn hometown soldier
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Local fire department trucks form an arch with a U.S. flag during the funeral procession for Staff Sgt. Edward Mills on Saturday in New Castle, Lawrence County.
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NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Hundreds of mourners flooded Staff Sgt. Edward Mills' funeral service Saturday, spilling into side rooms and crowding around doors and TV monitors for a glimpse of the ceremony.
At the front of the crowd was Sgt. Mills' flag-draped coffin, flanked by photographs of the 29-year-old Lawrence County man in his Army uniform.
Sgt. Mills died May 26, one of six soldiers killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province. The Union resident was a member of the Army's famed 101st Airborne Division on his third combat tour.
"He gave everything he had," Sgt. Mills' brother Jarod, 24, said at the New Castle service. Mr. Mills, a pastor, tearfully described his brother's life and death with Bible verse.
"There is no greater love than this, that a man shall lay down his life for his friends," he said, quoting John 15:13. Friends and relatives had described Sgt. Mills as a lifelong military buff who'd always planned for military service.
His friends and family sat amid a sea of supporters, many of them visitors who had never known the soldier personally. Police, firefighters, soldiers and Marines stood outside the Ed and Don DeCarbo Funeral Home to pay their respects. Emergency workers from Sgt. Mills' hometown waited nearby.
As six soldiers carried the coffin down the steps of the funeral home, dozens of bikers from motorcycle clubs and veterans' groups idled their engines on the street, flags in hand, while New Castle residents watched from sidewalks.
"It's dedication," biker and Patriot Guard Riders member Bud Roberts said of the widespread community support. "A lot of towns come out this way to pay their respects."
The 3-mile route to St. Vitus cemetery was lined with onlookers: some saluted, some cried and held signs and a few -- firefighters from Union, Shenango and Ellwood City -- created a fire-truck ladder arch to hang an American flag over the procession. Businesses near St. Vitus displayed marquees hailing Sgt. Mills as a local hero.
The cemetery went silent as the motorcyclists cut their engines one by one and Sgt. Mills' six uniformed pallbearers carried his coffin into a chapel.
Minutes later, the three sharp cracks of a 21-gun salute and the strains of "taps" rolled along a grassy hill marking the ceremony's end. The bikers rolled out with their engines still cut, while veterans, emergency workers and local civilian supporters filed out quietly in the midday heat to return home.
First Published June 12, 2011 12:00 am
