To rural Colorado residents, saying goodbye to a hometown hero — a local soldier killed in Iraq — took precedence Tuesday morning over the swearing-in of President Barack Obama.
As the new president took his oath of office, more than 1,000 people gathered silently inside LifeBridge Christian Church in Firestone for the 10 a.m. services for Berthoud’s own Army Staff Sgt. Justin L. Bauer, 24, a civilian firefighter and a military paratrooper who was killed in combat Jan. 10 in Baghdad.
The church was filled nearly to capacity, while more than 100 graybearded motorcycle riders, some of them veterans, formed a flag line along the sidewalks leading to the church entrance.
Following the hour-long service, some 500 vehicles formed a funeral procession 2 miles long, led by a firetruck carrying the flag-draped coffin to Greenlawn Cemetery in Berthoud.
The procession traveled 13 miles, past Berthoud High School, where the student body of about 300 lined the curb with flags and ROTC students gave a full salute. Bauer had lettered in football and wrestling at the school before graduating in 2002.
The weather was perfect — bright sunshine and 70 degrees.
The cortege drove the length of Mountain Avenue, Berthoud’s main street, as hundreds of citizens lined the street waving, crying, saluting or holding flags. Several people waved signs that read “Berthoud’s Hometown Hero.”
Even the A&W Root Beer All-American drive-in restaurant had on its marquee: “Justin Bauer: Gone but Never Forgotten.”
Gov. Bill Ritter, who was in Washington, D.C., sent his condolences to the family and ordered all state flags to fly at half-staff today.
Bauer, who had married his high school sweetheart, Kari Campbell, just three months ago, left for his second tour of duty in Iraq shortly before Thanksgiving. His first tour of duty in 2004 lasted 16 months, his second just two months when he was killed by a roadside bomb.
He served with the 82nd Airborne Division, which sent 24 soldiers to the funeral from Fort Bragg, N.C., including division commandant Major Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, who knelt graveside before the widow and presented her with the coffin flag.
“It’s significant that Staff Sgt. Bauer was both a firefighter and a soldier,” Scaparrotti told the congregation during the service. “He lived to give his best to others. His fellow soldiers told me ‘he was the best (sergeant) we ever had’ and ‘he taught most of us most of what we know.’ ”
Colorado State Trooper Mike Fohrd, Bauer’s cousin, made a short graveside eulogy, extended condolences from Ritter, then presented the family with three Colorado flags that had flown over the Capitol on Friday.
