Lucas White remembered at services before burial at Arlington

FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- An ancient tribal song echoed through the Main Post Chapel on Thursday as family and friends honored a fallen warrior of the Umatilla tribe.

Army Sgt. Lucas T White, a 28-year-old White Swan High School graduate, was killed in Iraq on Nov. 6 after his unit came under attack during a routine patrol in Baghdad.

Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, his unit was struck by small-arms fire and an improvised explosive device.

Calling him a warrior of this land, about 150 family members, friends and military comrades gathered at the chapel in White's memory. A delegation from the Yakama Warriors Association -- a group of veterans on the Yakama reservation -- lined one aisle.

At the altar, a pair of boots, name tags and a helmet propped atop a rifle belonging to White rested on a cabinet from which three flags extended -- the American flag and the flags of White's battalion and brigade. A gold cup turned upside down was placed between the boots, representing the fallen Tomahawk soldier.

Yakama religious leader Davis Yallowash Washines rang a bell three times before singing the ancient song that wished White well on his journey to "the land way over there."

A somber cloud hovered as Spc. Zeke Alcala wiped tears away as he told how White was a caring leader who put the safety of his unit first.

"He knew his job, and his job was to care for and train his soldiers," Alcala said. "I knew Sgt. White as a team leader, I knew him as a friend."

Tears flowed as Alcala told how White would sometimes sneak in his room, eat his food and watch his television.

"I'd go into my room and he'd be there grinning at me," Alcala recalled. "I couldn't help but grin back and sit and watch TV with him."

Alcala described White's home in Moses Lake as warm, and told of how much the sergeant loved his wife, Jennifer.

Born in Pendleton, Ore., White moved to White Swan at age 12, and graduated from high school there in 1996. He moved to Moses Lake a few months before joining the military in 2001.

White left for Iraq about five months ago and was scheduled to come home on leave in December.

Leadership skills he acquired while serving in Afghanistan proved invaluable in Iraq, Alcala said of the highly decorated White.

"He was a great man and I will always remember him," he said.


White's grandfather, Eddie Fivecrows James, told Alcala it was OK to cry.

"It's tough to be human because your emotions are always there," he said.

James told how he took White, before he enlisted, to an elder and Korean War veteran named Wandering Bear.

"He told my grandson what could happen," James explained. "My grandson didn't go into it blind."

James told how White came to him troubled after serving in Afghanistan.

"I asked him, 'How are you sleeping?' and he said 'Not good, Grandpa.'"

White stayed with his grandfather for a while, going to sweats, where the two would cleanse themselves by singing ancient healing songs and pouring water over hot rocks in a dome-shaped lodge, James said.

"I told him they'd put these memories in a compartment, and that he could take them out (only) when he needed them so he wouldn't be hurt, sad anymore," he said.


Then James recalled White asking what God thought of him killing people.

"I told him the Creator has an army of his own, taking care of things that we don't know, called angels," James said. "I told him, Grandson, you are part of that army of angels -- you take care of things that we can't see, can't control.

"You are a protector of the things that warriors took care of before you were here. They took care of the land, foods, the four-legged. You are a warrior."

James finished by telling the crowd that White gave of himself to others, so that there could be a future for everyone.

"This is what my grandson accomplished," he said. "Death is only the beginning -- his spirit is with the maker. That's what we fight for as human beings."

Afterwards, White's mother, Julia James Brooks, recalled her son as an energetic kid who would climb the walls and liked to play with toy army men and dig foxholes in wheat fields near their home in Pendleton.

But most of all, he was a loving person, she said.

"He's always been a real good kid," she said. "He never had anything bad to say about anyone."

White's numerous medals of valor include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart Army Commendation Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. He was one of about 21,700 American Indians currently serving in the armed forces, and the first American Indian with ties to the Yakima Valley to be killed in Iraq.

He is survived by five brothers, a sister, his father, Mervin White, and stepfather, Lyle Brooks, as well as his wife and mother.

White's body will arrive just before sundown at Toppenish Creek Longhouse today for traditional overnight services before being taken to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where he will be buried Monday.

From the Yakima Herald

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