Ryan McCaughn has final services

MANCHESTER – To his family, Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan McCaughn was a sweet and funny soul who wore a brave face to protect the people he loved. To others, he was a hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Those who mourn his death paid tribute to both legacies yesterday morning during an emotional funeral service in Manchester.

McCaughn, 19, was pursuing insurgents in Iraq's Al Anbar province two weeks ago when a homemade bomb detonated near his vehicle. The explosion killed him instantly, relatives said.

"He died a hero. He died my hero," his cousin, Melissa Cote, told mourners yesterday at the St. Anne-St. Augustin Catholic Church.

Family members said McCaughn achieved a lifelong dream when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps during his senior year at Central High School. At the time, McCaughn explained he wanted to put his life on the line so a father wouldn't have to.

"That speaks volumes to us, that this man wanted to offer himself so that one dad would not have to go to Iraq," the Rev. Joseph Gurdak said. "And he knew the risk ... It's a horrible risk."

Growing up in North Carolina and later in Manchester, McCaughn had little contact with his own biological father. His parents divorced when he was 18 months old. He and his father, Thomas McCaughn, rarely spoke until last year.

The elder McCaughn, who lives in Wisconsin, was at the airport in Manchester last week to see the Marine Corps load his son's casket into a waiting hearse. Yesterday, he joined the family beside the casket in a clearing at the Pine Grove Cemetery.

"For anyone that's in my situation: Don't let distance keep you from being close to your children," Thomas McCaughn said after the ceremony.

"Even if I wasn't here in town, I loved him with all my heart," he added.

About 250 people turned out for yesterday's service at the Beech Street church. Outside, dozens of leather- and denim-clad veterans from the Patriot Guard Riders lined the sidewalks, saluting family members in silence as the church bell tolled.

Even in grief, mourners paid tribute to McCaughn's goofy side. Pallbearers strode out of the family's limousine in pin-striped zoot suits with feathered fedoras. Just one year and a half ago, McCaughn wore the same outfit to his high-school prom.

The memory prompted smiles from McCaughn's friends, even as tears rolled down their cheeks. Kelly Farnsworth, 19, said she's scarcely slept since McCaughn's passing. At one point, she said, she and her boyfriend drove aimlessly for six hours just so she wouldn't have to be home.

"I didn't want to believe it," said Farnsworth, a friend of McCaughn's since the sixth grade. "I still don't."

Several politicians attended yesterday's service, including U.S. Sen. John Sununu and Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta. Absent was Gov. John Lynch, who has attended funerals for nearly all of the New Hampshire servicemen who died during his tenure at the State House.

Lynch spokesman Pamela Walsh said the governor attended McCaughn's wake on Saturday but could not attend the funeral because of a "long-standing family commitment."

Inside the church, mourners sang the national anthem and the "The Marines' Hymn." At one point, McCaughn's brother, Chris Merlin, approached the church altar to perform a song on his acoustic guitar.

Merlin, 24, dedicated "Arlington," by Trace Adkins, to his little brother.

I'm thankful for ... the things I've done.

I can rest in peace. I'm one of the chosen ones.

I made it to Arlington.

In fact, Merlin said, relatives were offered the chance to bury McCaughn at the national cemetery in Virginia. They declined, he said, because they wanted to keep him close to home.

At Pine Grove, Marines kneeled at his parents' feet to present the Purple Heart, awarded posthumously for wounds sustained on the day he died.

A line of seven Marines fired off a 21-gun salute. The family wept as a lone bugler played taps.

McCaughn frequently went to sleep to the strains of that song, a fact Diocese of Manchester Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian noted earlier in the funeral service.

"Please remember," Christian said, "that Ryan got up in the morning to reveille. And there is, even now, a reveille that is playing in heaven."

The ceremony concluded as Marines placed on McCaughn's casket an array of yellow roses, one for every member of his platoon in Iraq. A bagpiper played the "The Marines' Hymn," and family members stood in silence, watching the casket as the music slowly faded.

From the Union Leader

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