Posted on 04/17/2003 3:21:31 AM PDT by OriginalV
MAXWELL, Neb. - In silence and ceremony that spoke louder than words, Marine Capt. Travis Allen Ford came home to Nebraska.
Step by step Wednesday afternoon, Marines in blue dress uniforms executed precise drill movements, in unison and in silence, while carrying Ford's flag-draped casket to the committal shelter at Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell.
Deon Ford, wife of Marine Capt. Travis Ford, is escorted from her husband's burial Wednesday at Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell, Neb. In tow is daughter Ashley.
Seven Marines fired three volleys each - a 21-gun salute - which echoed in the nearby hills, the site of a frontier fort stirring with the ghosts of Custer, Crook and Buffalo Bill.
A Marine bugler's mournful taps rolled over acres of white granite headstones planted in perfect columns and rows.
Crisply folded U.S. flags were presented to Ford's wife, Deon, and to his mother, Josephine Ford, on behalf of the president of the United States, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and a grateful nation.
It wasn't the homecoming from war that family and friends in hometown Ogallala and across the nation hoped to give the 30-year-old pilot.
Ford was the first native Nebraskan killed in action in Iraq. He and a fellow Marine died April 4 when their AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed during combat operations near Baghdad.
He is the first combat casualty to be buried at Fort McPherson since the Vietnam War, more than three decades ago.
Under a leaden sky, a cold, flag-snapping north wind buffeted the afternoon ceremony, attended by more than 200 people, who spilled out of the open-air shelter.
Ford's 2-year-old daughter, Ashley, huddled in her mother's arms.
In a eulogy earlier in North Platte, Alex Ford, whose Marine career inspired Travis to enlist, said his brother's biggest hope when he deployed was "that he might be here for her, to watch her grow."
Alex Ford quoted from a note Travis left for his daughter:
"Always do your best. Give 100 percent and you'll get 100 percent back. It's OK to cry. Daddy cries. But not over spilled milk - unless it's a 2 a.m. bottle."
Alex Ford said his brother was a patriot. "He believed in what he was doing," he said. "He knew it could cost everything he had to give."
Travis Ford's grave marker.
Based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Ford left the United States on Jan. 17 in flag-waving and crowd-cheering fanfare aboard the USS Dubuque. The vessel sailed from San Diego in a seven-ship armada that carried nearly 10,000 Marines and sailors to the Persian Gulf.
Ford left a hero and returned a hero.
The final miles of his journey from the crash site near the Tigris River in central Iraq to a national cemetery near the Platte River in western Nebraska paid final tribute to Ford's service to his country.
Fort McPherson conducts several hundred burials a year. Ford's was the sixth at the cemetery this week. As it was at all other burials here, the lane to the committal shelter is lined with casket flags donated by families of veterans buried at Fort McPherson.
But there was no doubt that this ceremony was extraordinary.
Twenty-four active-duty Marines from Marine Air Control Squadron 23 based at Buckley Air Force Base near Denver served as the funeral detail for their fallen comrade.
Maxwell High School students lined the village's main street with American flags as the burial procession passed by. Veterans in campaign hats saluted. A Nebraska Army Guard Black Hawk helicopter made two low passes over the cemetery.
Among the dignitaries attending were Gov. Mike Johanns and Adjutant Gen. Roger Lempke of the Nebraska National Guard.
To accommodate the crowd, the funeral service was held at the Berean Church in North Platte. Nearly 400 people turned out for the hourlong service led by the Rev. Jay Towell of the Ogallala Church of Christ.
Scriptural references, eulogies, prayers, song and laughter filled the service.
"You are not alone," Towell told Ford's family. "The heart of this community aches with yours."
Towell said Ford's e-mails home from the front were filled with faith, confidence and reassurance to his family. Ford wrote that he felt closer to God in Iraq because he was standing on the land where many Bible stories took place.
Marine Lt. Brian Grant said he flew more than 50 hours of combat with Ford in Iraq. Both were co-pilots, but Ford was in the lead copter and Grant was his wingman. Grant said they shared laughs and terror in Iraq.
"Without fail, after each sortie, he would jump out of his cockpit with wide eyes and his crazy smile and yell something," Grant said. "The words always changed, but they were always loud."
Grant said Ford was selfless. After their first mission, a nine-hour sortie, Grant returned to the ready room to find Ford sitting behind the operations desk volunteering to take the next six-hour duty shift so younger Marines could catch some sleep.
"He was just as tired, but he didn't want to quit," Grant said. "He was a good friend, a good pilot, a husband to his wife, a good father to his daughter . . . and all this was self-evident in the short time I was fortunate enough to know him."
Ford was a star athlete in high school before joining the Marines and attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he was a member of the Yell Squad at Husker football games.
At the end of the cemetery ceremony, Ford's wife placed two roses on her husband's casket, kissed her daughter, then kissed her fingers and lovingly touched the casket.
Ford's burial plot is at the base of a 12-foot oak tree among veterans of earlier wars:
Keith K. Madden, CGM, Navy, World War II . . . Joseph W. Jensen, PFC, Army, Korea . . . Donald H. Whitaker, Sgt. U.S. Marine Corps, Korea, Vietnam . . . Melinda E. Martens-Sagiao, Staff Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Persian Gulf
By sunset, a new granite marker was in place:
Travis A. Ford, Capt., U.S. Marine Corps, Persian Gulf, Purple Heart, Air Medal, Killed in Action
That's a contradiction. It's three rifle volleys, not a 21-gun salute. 21-gun salutes are fired for Presidents, former Presidents and sitting foreign heads of state, only. 21-gun salutes are fired by artillery pieces or Naval guns. Rifles are not guns. In the past, rifle details were frequently comprised of eight riflemen. What happened then, 24-gun salutes? No. Three rifle volleys are rendered, not 21-gun salutes.
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