Nicholas Arvanitis laid to rest

Salem – No matter the situation, Cpl. Nicholas Arvanitis had the same smiley grin on his face, mourners recalled yesterday during his funeral services.

The soldier's smile came up repeatedly as his family, friends and teachers spoke about him inside St. Joseph Church to a standing-room-only crowd. Mourners were then shown a slideshow, spanning three songs, showing Arvanitis smiling from when he was a child until he was a soldier.

Outside, police officers and firefighters lined the streets, as members of the local Patriot Guard Riders chapter stood in salute as Arvanitis' flag-draped coffin was taken into the Main Street church. Plans by the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas group notorious for protesting soldiers' funerals, to have a presence outside the event didn't materialize.

Inside, Arvanitis was remembered as a talented musician who knew what might happen if he signed up to join the military, but who wanted to go anyway. Those who knew him said he grew up to be a loyal man with a shining personality.

"Nick may have been my baby brother, but I'm the one who looks up to him," said his sister, Kimberly Arvanitis, 24, who has also served in Iraq.

Arvanitis, a paratrooper with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, was killed by gunfire in Bayji, Iraq, on Oct. 6, the day after he turned 22. The 2003 Salem High School graduate signed up for the military when he was still 17. He had been stationed in Iraq since August and also served in Afghanistan.

Months before heading to Iraq, his sister said, he was given the chance to become a military recruiter, a job that would prevent him from going back to combat. Kimberly Arvanitis pleaded with him to take the desk job, but she said there was no convincing him.

Arvanitis wanted to make a career out of music after his service was through. In high school, he played guitar in a metal band called Thrall and was also a member of the high school jazz ensemble. He also belonged to the school's wrestling team.

His two former heavy metal band mates €" Bill Croft and Brandon Oberkrieser, both 21 €" spoke of their memories for the packed church along with Arvanitis' longtime friend, Keith Stickney, also 21.

Croft recalled how his friend was always the life of the party. He said he remembers all the fun times they had, whether it was going to parties, cruising through town or being the only patrons at Denny's late at night.

"Nick was a crazy guy, fun to be around no matter what," he said.

Ben Adams, the soldier's former social studies teacher, said Arvanitis was the quiet type in class. He said it was clear that Arvanitis liked being part of a team, and worked hard to pull his own weight.

Marty Claussen, Salem High's band director, said Arvanitis was willing to help the high school band out on short notice €" even when there was little or no benefit to him. He also accepted everyone and had friends in all the high school cliques, he said. His personality, he said, served him well in the military.

"He didn't want the spotlight or personal glory," he said. "He just wanted to be your friend."

From the Union Leader

Soldier was drawn to serve country

Friends say Cpl. Nicholas Arvanitis had a lust for life that wasn't easy to contain. He rattled windows when he played guitar with his metal band, Thrall. At concerts, he started mosh pits, slamming himself into the biggest guys he could find.

Even in defeat - when another wrestler pinned him or he struck out at bat - Arvanitis kept a huge grin on his face.

Arvanitis, a Salem High School graduate, was buried yesterday in the veterans section of Pine Grove Cemetery in Salem. As a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, Arvanitis had already served a combat tour in Afghanistan when he volunteered to go to Iraq in August. He was killed by enemy gunfire on Oct. 6, one day after he turned 22.

"He wanted to be a major player in the war," said his sister, Kim Arvanitis, who tried to persuade Arvanitis to take a recruiting job he was offered after his first tour. "All he would say to me was, 'I want to go with my guys. I want to get them through this and get them all home.' "

At his funeral service, friends said Arvanitis loved being part of a team, whether it was the jazz band, the marching band or the wrestling team. And he was not intimidated by challenges or sacrifices he had to make to be part of a group.

For Marty Claussen, who directs the marching band and jazz ensemble at Salem High, Arvanitis was a go-to guy. Claussen once asked Arvanitis, a baritone player, to switch to the cumbersome sousaphone for a march in the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Calif.
Another time, he asked Arvanitis to fill in for a guitar player in a percussion ensemble. Arvantis had only a week to learn the music that others had worked on for months, but Arvanitis didn't panic or hesitate to accept, Claussen told mourners who gathered at St. Joseph's Parish in Salem.

Arvanitis hoped to pursue a career in music, friends said. But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he felt compelled to enlist in the military.

"After Sept. 11, Nick told me he had to do what had to be done," said Robert Stickney, the father of one of Arvanitis's closest friends, Keith Stickney. "He said his music could wait."

Kim Arvanitis, 24, of Manchester, said she should have guessed her brother's future career when he was 5: She caught him jumping off the top bunk bed onto a beanbag chair.

"I said, 'Are you crazy?' " she said. Arvanitis just grinned at her.

Kim Arvanitis, who joined the Air Force after high school, wasn't the only one who worried when her brother announced he was joining the 82nd Airborne, an infantry unit that frequently deploys to dangerous combat areas. Ben Adams, a history teacher at Salem High and a former airborne soldier, remembers when Arvanitis told him he had joined an airborne unit.

"He could see that I had significant concerns," he said. "In the 82nd, he was going to be in harm's way.

"He looked at me and said, 'It's something I gotta do,' " Adams said.

Thrall's drummer, Bill Croft, who now lives in Florida, lightened the mood when he recalled Arvanitis's exuberance.

"Always the life of the party and the first to pass out," he said.

Brandon Oberkrieser, Thrall's bass player, said Arvanitis's death still seems unreal.

"I've struggled to convince myself that's it's true," he said. "I'm still expecting to hear from him any day."

Gov. John Lynch and Sen. Judd Gregg attended Arvanitis's funeral, along with Brig. Gen. Stephen Burritt, who heads the New Hampshire Army National Guard.

On Main Street, people stood in front of homes and shops to watch the funeral procession pass. Bikers of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group that formed in opposition to a church group protesting soldiers' funerals, led the procession and brought up the rear. Fire trucks and police cars lit up the path toward the cemetery.

About 100 Salem High juniors in the ROTC program saluted as Arvanitis's car passed by the school. A dozen teachers and administrators stood outside to watch. Inside, students stood at the glass doors and classroom windows.

At the gravesite, members of the 82nd Airborne, recognizable by their maroon berets, stood at attention. Some were teenagers; others had gray hair and wore hearing aids.

"We know that this is as far as we can go with our brother," said Lt. Col. Patrick Neil, a chaplain with the 82nd, which is based in Fort Bragg, N.C.

Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Capel of the 82nd took the folded flag that had covered the casket and presented it to Arvanitis's mother, Maureen Arvanitis.

From the Concord Monitor

Tears for a son, brother, and a friend

SALEM - The mother and sister of Cpl. Nicholas Arvanitis clutched red roses, leaned against each other and wept as they said their final farewells to the fallen paratrooper.
More than 300 people attended Arvanitis' funeral, packing St. Joseph's Church. Many others later lined Main Street, holding flags and saluting a long procession that made its way through Salem.

The Salem Police Department and 103 motorcycles driven by the Patriot Guard Riders led the hearse and stream of cars to Pine Grove Cemetery.

Arvanitis was killed by enemy fire in Bayji, Iraq, on Oct. 6, a day after his 22nd birthday.

Arvanitis' sister Kimberly, a former Air Force police officer who also served in Iraq, choked back tears while speaking at the funeral. The crowd consisted of many uniformed military personnel, as well as friends, family and others who knew him.

Kimberly Arvanitis said she once saw her brother repeatedly jumping off his top bunk bed onto a beanbag chair, so he was destined to be a paratrooper, it seems, though that was not his original plan.

Nicholas Arvanitis joined the Army Rangers in 2003. But after a few weeks of training, his sister said, he decided they "weren't hard-core enough for him." He began training as a paratrooper.

Nicholas Arvanitis, a member of the 82nd Airborne, was deployed to Iraq in August and had spent a year in Afghanistan, beginning in November 2004.

He was offered a job as a recruiter before returning to Iraq, his sister said, but he turned it down because he wanted serve with his unit.

"He wanted to be a major player in the war," Kimberly Arvanitis said. "Nick may have been my baby brother, but I looked up to him."

Nicholas Arvanitis' sense of duty struck others, too.

Ben Adams, a teacher at Salem High School, taught both Nicholas and Kimberly Arvanitis. He recalled talking with the teen about the war during his senior year. At the time, his sister was in Iraq.

"He was truly affected by the conflict and felt compelled to do something about it," Adams said. "I want to thank Nick for making me the student."

The last time Adams saw Nicholas Arvanitis was after his high school graduation in 2003, when he told his teacher he'd enlisted in the Army.

"He could see I had concerns because he was going to be in harm's way and he said, 'Mr. Adams, it's something I have to do.' And he gave me that half smile, half grin," Adams said.

Marty Claussen, Salem High School's band director, remembers Arvanitis as a talented guitarist who became a key player in the school's jazz ensemble.

Claussen cited three traits: selflessness, the ability to connect with others and devotion. He then referred to the famous West Point speech by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

"Duty, honor, country," he said. "I don't know if Nick ever heard that speech, but I do know that's how he lived his life."

The soldier's friends touched upon his lighter side, telling stories of the "Nick Arvanitis Experience."

"When we went out, I always thought it would be the first night we spent together in a cell," said Bill Croft, who played in a heavy metal rock band with Arvanitis.

"Like the quote says: A friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend is the one sitting next to you saying, 'That was awesome.'"

A chuckle rose up in the church as the crowd reacted to Croft's stories of late-night trips to Denny's and Arvanitis' penchant for mooning passing cars.

Bob Stickney, a fellow paratrooper and father of a longtime friend, expressed pride in watching Arvanitis grow up.

Stickney said Nicholas Arvanitis was like a son and later became like a brother. They both served in the 82nd Airborne, and Stickney said he enjoyed swapping jump stories with him.

Others in the crowd included Gov. John Lynch, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., state Sens. Chuck Morse, R-Salem, and Robert Letourneau, R-Derry, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Coburn, Town Manager Henry LaBranche and Selectmen Chairman Mike Lyons.

Even those who did not know Arvanitis were able to watch him grow up in a slide show, from the time he was born to recent photos in Iraq.

Groups of people holding flags stood on the sidewalk from the church, past the fire station, Woodbury School and all the way to the cemetery.

The electric sign at Canobie Lake Park read "America Salutes Cpl. Nicholas Arvanitis: You will be remembered." Banners with similar messages hung from an overpass near Exit 1 on Interstate 93 South.

At the cemetery, members of the 82nd Airborne fired three shots. Two students from Salem High School played taps as soldiers from Arvanitis' unit condcuted a flag ceremony.

The folded triangle was presented to his mother, Maureen, who stood graveside, supported by her daughter and parents.

Chaplain Lt. Col. Patrick D. Neal of the 82nd Airborne asked people to hold hands as the Rev. Art Pare of St. Joseph's read a prayer.

Neal pointed to the people leaning on one another in the cemetery as symbolic of the many people who were able to lean on Arvanitis in his short life.

Arvanitis is survived by his mother, Maureen, and sister, Kimberly, both of Manchester, his father, Richard, of Methuen, Mass., and his grandparents, Leonard and Rita Dill of Salem.

From the Eagle Tribune

Related Link:
Nicholas Arvanitis remembered by friends

Related Link:
Sister, teachers recall Nicholas Arvanitis

Related Link:
Friends remember Nicholas Arvanitis

Related Link:
Nicholas Arvanitis killed by small arms fire