Monday, 0830.  I got to the church just in time to stand for the transfer.  We continued to stand in front of that church until 1100.  Then we waited outside during the service.

The procession to the cemetery was led by the police, then the Patriot Guard Riders, then the hearse, then the family and then the other mourners.  We traveled past the schools of North Chicago.

And then we traveled south on Green Bay Road through Lake Bluff and Lake Forest.

We went past Kevin's school.

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I had a pleasure to meet Michelle, the newest PGRider.  She is a counselor at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center helping veterans with PTSD and addictions.  She ran across a website and notice an opportunity to participate immediately and locally, so she hopped on her bike and joined us mid-morning.

Dave and Dave fold the escort flag for presentation.

In addition to the casket flag, the Navy would present two others.

The DoD news release says simply, “Gunners Mate 2nd Class Dion R. Roberts, 25, of North Chicago, Ill., died Sept. 22, as a result of a single vehicle accident in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He was assigned to an East Coast Naval Special Warfare Unit.”

“Single vehicle accident” just doesn’t get it said. It reminds most of us of WWII movies with GIs on leave in Paris. Or the last chapter of Band of Brothers. But read more carefully: He was a Gunners Mate attached to the East Coast SEALS. This was not a case of drunk driving. His job was to provide security during Special Ops. He was travel at speed with a small group of elite warriors into the most dangerous areas of the world to execute complex, sensitive missions with great fury and violence. Maybe he rode along on the bin Laden mission.

~~~

He graduated from North Chicago High School in 2005. He was NJROTC there. The teams are called the Warhawks. Their basketball team finished fourth in Illinois last year. Most people who knew Dion knew him when he was a student and it was fitting for his final journey to wind past the North Chicago schools. We took him to a federal cemetery overlooking Lake Michigan just eight miles south of his high school.
 

Remember Jessica Lynch? She was captured during the Battle of Nasiriyah in March, 2003. She remained a prisoner for nine days until a Special Ops rescue mission. But during those nine days, we heard that she joined the Army because she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher.

We heard that again and again. “She joined the Army because she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher.” It turns out that she was a fine soldier and a defiant prisoner. And she is now a proud veteran. But at the time, many Americans were predisposed to believe that our warriors did not join the military expecting to fight.

That kind of talk disrespects our young volunteers.  Americans have always risen to the call to defend Liberty. Last month was the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. The students graduating from high school now were in the second grade when we invaded Afghanistan. Of all the students I saw in North Chicago today, the ones I most appreciate and respect were the four NJROTC Warhawks:
 

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.

It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

-Ronald Reagan

And that's why Dion was a hero.

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