Town remembers slain
soldier, faces down protesters
By Kelly Kurt
Associated Press
CHELSEA, Okla. —
People who knew Army Staff Sgt. John Doles and many who didn’t took up U.S.
flags Tuesday in his hometown to honor his sacrifice and defy an outside
group that sought to turn the slain soldier’s funeral into a stage for its
message of hate.
As Doles’ funeral
procession rolled past the brick buildings of the small town where he grew
up, men, women and children stood with tears in their eyes and hands on
their hearts.
“Respect,” said
73-year-old Betty Benson, explaining why she waved a flag for the
29-year-old she never knew. “I think he deserves that.”
Doles died Sept. 30 in
an ambush in southern Afghanistan. He was squad leader in Bravo Company, 1st
Battalion, 508th Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy,
where he lived with his wife, Heather, and their 12-year-old son and
9-year-old daughter.
He had previously
served in Iraq, parachuting into the country in the opening days of the war
in the largest combat jump since World War II.
Those who knew Doles
described him as an outgoing friend, devoted father and a soldier eager to
serve.
“John knew his stuff,”
said Sgt. Brian Waterman, Doles’ friend and platoon sergeant when they
served together at Fort Polk, La.
“I believe all of us
here know how big a heart John had,” Waterman told the more than 200 people
crammed into the First Christian Church. “When we were all in Iraq with no
e-mail, no phones, John still made sure Heather got flowers on her
birthday.”
Doles’ death made the
distant wars far more personal for the people of his hometown. And many
brimmed with anger when a half-dozen members of Westboro Baptist Church in
Topeka, Kan., showed up shortly before his funeral.
The church members,
who have protested soldiers’ funerals in Oklahoma and elsewhere, say God is
punishing U.S. soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays. |
They stood on a street
corner in sight of the church and waved signs with messages such as “God
Hates the USA” and “Don’t Worship the Dead.” But even as they unfolded
their signs, their protest was met with a counter protest that erupted in a
full-throttle roar.
About 70 members of the
leather-clad American Legion Riders from Kansas and Oklahoma revved their
motorcycles for about 30 minutes, drowning out anything the church members
tried to say.
Cregg Hansen, a
Vietnam-era veteran who helped lead the counter protest, said Doles’ family
had wanted to hear the engines’ roar.
The riders said they
plan to do the same if the group attempts to disrupt other soldiers’
funerals within riding distance.
“It ain’t right to
protest a sacred thing like this,” said Ron Scrivner, a rider whose father
is a veteran. “He (Doles) died for his country. They ought to show him the
respect he deserves.”
The church members’
protests at funerals prompted a state lawmaker to introduce a bill making it
a misdemeanor offense to picket or otherwise demonstrate within 500 feet of
where a funeral is being held and within two hours of the time a funeral is
to begin or to end.
About 40 law officers
were on hand during the protest, which ended peacefully when the church
group left. The motorcyclists clutched flags and joined local residents in
solemn tribute as the funeral procession passed through town.
No one mentioned the
disruption during Doles’ service.
His wife, son Logan
and daughter Breanna sat inches away from the flag-covered casket. At the
back of the sanctuary, Doles’ war medals — which included a Bronze Star, the
Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal — sat amid flickering candles.
The Rev. Richard
Billings, who officiated at the Doles’ wedding and Doles’ baptism, said
dying in Afghanistan “was not the last thing he ever did.”
“His ministry is right
now. Johnny Doles is a hero,” Billings said. “We enjoy the freedom he worked
for and gave his life for.” |
Italy-based soldier killed
fighting Afghan insurgents
By
Joseph Giordono, Stars
and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday,
October 5, 2005
An Italy-based soldier assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry
Regiment was killed last week in Afghanistan, military officials confirmed
Tuesday.
Staff Sgt. John G. Doles, 29, died in Shah Wali during a battle with
insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire on Sept. 30,
officials said.
Doles, who leaves behind a wife and two small children, was a native of
Claremore, Okla., according to the Pentagon. There was no information
available Tuesday as to where or when a memorial service would be held at
Vicenza’s Caserma Ederle, where the 508th is based. At least 13 soldiers
from the Southern European Task Force (Airborne) have been killed in
Afghanistan in the last 6½ months.
Doles’ father told a local Oklahoma television station that his son
planned to join the Army Rangers when his tour in Afghanistan was over. John
Doles was part of the 173rd Airborne’s combat drop into northern Iraq in
March 2003, and was serving his first tour in Afghanistan.
“Everybody’s concentrating on Iraq, which is understandable. But we’re
still tracking down al-Qaida and trying to find bin Laden,” Gene Doles told
the station.
Doles’ grandmother, Mattieann Kay, was the matriarch of a family that
included 26 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren. She remembered her
grandson as a tough “all-American” kid.
“He wasn’t supposed to go yet — I was. He completed everything he ever
started. Even fistfights,” she said, according to The Argus, a Bay Area
paper in her California hometown of Fremont.
Doles was “able and fearless,” she recalled.
Family members told the paper a memorial service was planned for Oct. 11
in Chelsea, Okla.
|
