Paul Finken laid to rest

EARLING - On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month almost 1,100 people came to Earling's St. Joseph's Catholic Church Saturday to honor native son, Lt. Col. Paul Finken.

On a sunny but chilly Veterans Day most of the town's 600 residents sang, laughed and wept as they remembered a man whose death in Iraq a little over a week ago reminded them of the ultimate sacrifice Americans pay honor to on this national holiday.

Fifty of Finken's Harlan High School classmates also attended, as did about 17 different American Legion post representatives. A West Point contingent filled several pews; some had attended the Army's service academy with Finken in the late 1980s. The lieutenant colonel's 101st Airborne Division from Ft. Campbell, Ky., was represented, with nine of its members serving as honor guards. And Finken's high school friend, former Blue Angel Jerry Deren, came from Texas to say goodbye.

Outside St. Joseph's, Patriot Guard Riders formed a flag-bearing motorcycle convoy, while some of its members ringed the church's front entrance with large American flags.

A block away a handful of protesters from Topeka's Westboro Church were largely ignored as they spread their out-of-place message that American deaths are God's payback for sin.

Finken's family followed his casket into the church as the service began. His widow, Jackie, of Ft. Dodge, held two of her young daughters' hands. Finken's twin brother, Peter, held the third girl. They hugged stuffed animals and carried American flags in honor of their father.

Jackie and Paul were married at St. Joseph's 14 years ago. Rev. Michael Berner officiated. He also baptized their daughters, Emilie, Caroline and Julia.

Saturday he presided over Paul's funeral Mass.

"Lieutenant Colonel Paul Finken, I am a better man for having known you," Berner told the packed church and about 60 others who watched the service on closed-circuit television because of the overflow crowd.

Berner recounted stories he'd heard from family, friends and fellow servicemen and women since Finken's Nov. 2 death, the result of a Baghdad roadside bomb explosion.

He recalled Finken's mischievous boyhood antics. How as a short St. Joseph's fourth grader, Finken climbed on a friend's shoulders and wrote a dirty word on the cloakroom wall. When the teacher discovered the writing, she exonerated all the short students, Berner said.

"She blamed the tall ones, including Paul's brother, Peter."

Paul smiled in the back of the classroom, Berner said.

He recalled Finken's devotion to his wife and daughters. Berner said, that while in Iraq, Finken would interact with his family on the Web cam. He said the girls, ages 8, 6 and 4, would hold lollipops up to the camera and Finken would pretend to lick them. They played the violin and held up their report cards; showed Dad pictures they made of flying kites and riding bikes.

"They would trace their hands on the camera and told their dad when he came home they would hug him."

He recalled Jackie's stories of Paul changing diapers, staying up all night when the girls were sick, braiding their hair and teaching them the Belgian takedown, an Army combat technique.

"He was a marvelous husband and father," Berner said.

He talked about Finken's service.

"He was a soldier's soldier," the priest said. Finken's Army buddies told Berner he would never ask someone to do anything that he himself would not.

The funeral procession left St. Joseph's shortly after noon to the bagpiped strains of "Amazing Grace." Finken was buried in nearby St. Joseph's Cemetery with full military honors and posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

"So on this 11th hour of this 11th day of this 11th month, we turn Paul over to the orders of God almighty," Berner concluded. "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have finished the race."

From the Southwest Iowa News

Related Link:
Paul J. Finken killed by roadside bomb