Note: This article was originally published on Oct. 28, 2004. We’re re-posting it now for our tribute to Colorado’s Fallen.
Monument – Jolene Doughty Bascom kept her eyes straight ahead as she slowly marched behind her husband’s flag-draped coffin Wednesday afternoon.
The smile that so many of her friends and family often saw was gone, replaced by a blanket of grief worn by many widows of the Iraq war.
At 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, the 23-year-old widow moved past a crowd of childhood friends, church members and other mourners who spilled out of a chapel here and stepped into a limousine that trailed behind the hearse carrying Sgt. Douglas E. Bascom to Fort Logan
National Cemetery in Denver, where the third service of the day was to be held for the Marine.
Douglas Bascom of Colorado Springs died Oct. 20 when a makeshift bomb exploded near him in a province northwest of Baghdad. He was
25.
“They were always smiling together,” a tearful Tiffany Berendes said of the Bascoms following the 45-minute service in Monument.
More than 120 military service members, family and friends came to the afternoon service to remember the young Marine’s devotion to
God and country.
“(Jolene) was so proud of him,” said Berendes. “She was just like every military wife; every military wife is proud of her husband.”
Bascom is at least the 60th member of the military with ties to Colorado to die after fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan.
The service began with a standing ovation for the military members who were present and was followed by a video tribute that showed a
young blond boy on a rocking horse growing into a handsome, dark-haired Marine.
“He died a hero,” said Lois Williams, a friend of Jolene Bascom’s.
Douglas Bascom was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.
After taking some time off when he finished a four-year hitch with the service, Bascom, whose motto was “No man left behind,” volunteered to go back to active duty and to go to Iraq. He had been on duty in Iraq only a short time before he was killed.
Officials with the Marines said he was the first recalled Marine to die in Iraq.
On Oct. 17, Bascom received his first Purple Heart, for injuries sustained in a previous firefight. Three days later he was killed
by the explosion and posthumously awarded another Purple Heart.
An athlete, artist and avid snowboarder, the Marine moved to Colorado Springs in 1998. He is survived by his wife, his parents,
Larry and Debbie Bascom, and four siblings, all of Colorado Springs.
