Posted on 11/11/2003 5:14:30 PM PST by SJackson
A standing-room-only crowd of 700 packed a gymnasium Friday for a funeral service to remember Army Pfc. Rachel Bosveld, who was the fifth Wisconsin soldier killed in Iraq. Bosveld, of Waupun, was killed Oct. 26 during a mortar attack on a police station in Abu Ghraib, Iraq.
Before the eulogy, Gov. Jim Doyle spoke to the family at the service at the 332nd Support Center of the Wisconsin National Guard.
Friday would have been her 20th birthday and her family received her second Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
"Please know that Rachel's death was not in vain," said Brig. Gen. Stephan Curry, reading from an e-mail he received from Rachel's colleagues in Baghdad.
"Rachel Bosveld has now entered the membership of a very honored group, the honored group of fallen comrades," Curry said. "Her mission was selflessly carried out, to patrol the city and make it safe for the citizens of Baghdad and for her fellow soldiers."
Bosveld was the first woman from Wisconsin to die in the Iraqi conflict. She was a member of the 527th Military Police based in Giessen, Germany.
Her family lived in Berlin before moving to Waupun in 2000.
Some 500 people sat in folding chairs, and the back of the room and sides of the room were packed with those standing, including personnel representing Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Bosveld died two days before two letters she wrote to her family arrived in the mail. Her family sat close to the flag-draped casket, which remained open for the first 20 minutes of the 11 a.m. service, a period of time in which no one spoke.
Heavy silence hung over the gymnasium like a shroud, punctuated only by occasional coughing and a child's babbling.
"Sad, sad, sad," said Korean War veteran Jim Tratz of Oshkosh, attending the ceremony with members of the United Veterans Honor Guard. "It's sad that we are losing people. But that's (the outcome) of war."
The other Wisconsin service people to die in Iraq since the United States invaded the country in March were Army Spc. Paul J. Sturino, 21, of Rice Lake; Army Reservist Dan Gabrielson, 40, of Frederic; Army Maj. Mathew Schram, 36, of Brookfield; and Marine Sgt. Kirk Straseskie, 23, of Beaver Dam.
..................................
Pfc. Rachel Bosveld Died "Following a Dream"
By Jerry Burke
The body of Private First Class Rachel Bosveld is back in Wisconsin. Bosveld was killed a week ago last Sunday during a mortar attack on an Iraqi police station in Baghdad.
The best friend of Wisconsin's first female soldier to die in the war with Iraq says she finds comfort in the fact Rachel died doing what she wanted to do.
"Actually the night I found out, I was just about to sit down and write her a letter the night I found out she passed away," Zandra Beese says.
Zandra says she had some of the best times in her life with Rachel. They attended middle and high school together in Oshkosh before Rachel moved to Waupun, and they played side by side in the symphony orchestra. She says everyone who knew Rachel loved her infectious laugh.
She will receive full military honors.
"She just had a very peculiar [laugh]. It affected you when she laughed."
Zandra put together two books for herself and Rachel's mom which are full of the special memories that Rachel provided. Zandra says like so many things Rachel did in life, she was on a mission when she joined the Army.
"If she died any way, she died happy and she died doing what she always wanted to do and died following a dream that she's always had, and she always said, 'I want to follow my dad and my brother.' If that's what she wanted to do that she needed to do and she did it."
Zandra will be among at least 500 friends and relatives who will attend Rachel Bosveld's funeral in Berlin, her parents' hometown, on Friday. Rachel will be buried right next to her brother.
---------------------------------
By LINDA SPICE
Berlin - To those who never knew her, Rachel Bosveld's name brings with it a flurry of numbers - the first Wisconsin woman killed in the war in Iraq, the first military police officer from the state to die, the fifth state soldier lost.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Curry, who delivered the eulogy at Bosveld's funeral here Friday, called her "a great soldier." But not knowing her personally, he wanted to learn more.
What he found in his research of newspaper articles containing the memories of her friends and family written in the days after her death was that Bosveld defined her life through another number: the two distinct qualities of "incredible sensitivity and care and concern for people" and a "focused determination to succeed."
For Curry, that was the most important number of all. It helped shape a picture of Bosveld long recognized by those who knew her best.
Mary Bosveld, Rachel's mother, expressed great pride in Rachel, whose family saw her services Friday on what would have been her 20th birthday "as her going out in glory," her mother said.
"I'm extremely proud, not only of what she's done for our country but of the person that she was and the child and daughter that she was because she was a daughter before she was a warrior," she said.
An American flag overlooked Bosveld's casket. To the side, an easel held her 2002 Waupun High School graduation photo, taken shortly before she would decide to dedicate her life to military service.
Gov. Jim Doyle, who met privately with the Bosveld family, said in a statement: "Rachel's bravery, and her faithful and honorable service to our country, makes Wisconsin proud. Her sacrifice will not be forgotten."
As about 700 friends, veterans and soldiers filled the auditorium of the National Guard Armory in Berlin before the services, the family left to meet with Doyle. They re-entered the auditorium and took their last steps toward the open casket, holding each other gently, dabbing their eyes with tissues.
Again they left. The casket was turned away from mourners and closed. Its first American flag was gently removed as soldiers respectfully, methodically put another in its place. Both were later presented, one each, to Bosveld's parents, Mary and Marvin Bosveld.
Services began with the playing of "Amazing Grace" sung in Cherokee from a CD by Rita Coolidge. It was a song that Rachel Bosveld had learned and loved and asked that the CD be sent to her, her mother said.
And then a poem, read by family friend Rane J. Beese, spoke of hopes and dreams, life and death, wisdom gained through experience - all concepts that Rachel Bosveld grasped even at a young age. She had penned the words as a seventh-grader. Her family found the poem as they prepared for her services.
"It sounds like she wrote it last week," Beese later told a reporter.
In it, Rachel Bosveld wrote:
"I want to fulfill all my hopes and dreams
I feel lost in emotions they wrap around me like a blanket and hold me tight
I touch a butterfly as it flutters past
I worry about dying without having done all that I could."
Bosveld and her unit became the first military police company to cross into Iraq, Curry said. They later moved into an area of Baghdad he said some consider the most dangerous in the country.
"It is here that Rachel's qualities came forth and were demonstrated," said Curry, the commander of the military police school where Bosveld entered boot camp training.
A member of the 527th Military Police, Bosveld was killed Oct. 26 in a mortar attack on a police station in Baghdad. But it was not her first brush with danger; she survived a Sept. 12 grenade attack.
She was honored Friday with a presentation of a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
Along the processional route to Oakwood Cemetery stood a sign outside Berlin Middle School, where Veterans Day services at the school Tuesday will be dedicated to Bosveld. She did not attend school there but lived in the city until age 6. The sign read: "God Bless Pfc. Rachel Bosveld."
IT'S THE SOLDIER
It's the soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the
PRESS.
It's the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of
SPEECH.
It's the soldier, not the campus
ORGANIZER,
Who has given us the freedom to
DEMONSTRATE
It's the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a
FAIR TRIAL.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag,
Serves under the flag
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who gives the protester the right to burn the flag.
-Father D. E. O'Brien
Uh -hum . . .
Begging thy pardon, but women's rights groups insisted that women be placed in harm's way (equal rights).
It's haunting the hell out of us now.
And if we ever go into a REAL war, hell will have no mercy on our women put in the fighting shoes once very wisely reserved for our men.
Did anyone happen to see on Bill OReilly tonight the female Army Reservist with six kids to take care of was reassigned from going back to Iraq?
Women have Bill and Hillary Clinton personally to thank for this.
(But I hate to say, they asked (NO BEGGED) to be in the fighting front (and got it).
As opposed to the unreal one we are now in?
She was a Military Policeman,
and was never in combat to begin with.
She was part of those trying to bring Law and Order to Iraq,
and was just doing her Job.
Evil perverted leftist demented democratic lesbian harpies and thier minions asked for this.
They live, and this poor girl has died.
She should never have been allowed to be in the positon where she could put herself in harms way.
Women don't belong in combat, and its too bad that the GOP is too scared to say so.
Iraq is a war zone.
Trust me.
In the rear.
Throughout the first 200 years of this nations history we managed to take some 650,000 battle deaths without resorting to put our young women in harms way.
I wouldn't call the recent advent of using young women as cannon fodder "progress".
There are plenty of male service members, we don't need women in the front lines.
Does any human really belong in combat?
She should never have been allowed to be in the positon where she could put herself in harms way.
In other words, she should never have been allowed to make a decision about what she wanted to do with her life. It's always the government's fault. Not a big fan of the gov't myself but I think adults have to take responsibility for their own lives. Signing that dotted line is a big choice and one for the individual to make. She chose to do so and I am grateful for her sacrifice. If it hadn't been her in that coffin you see in the picture, it would've still been someone's son and I don't see how we would've gained anything positive in the equation there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.