Christopher Anderson laid to rest

Longmont - The black velvet curtains on the horse-drawn carriage were parted, giving view to the red and white stripes draping his casket.

As the body of Navy hospitalman Christopher Anderson, 24, neared his hometown church Saturday, neighbors, friends and strangers lined the street.

Many stood in their front yards waving American flags, tears glistening in their eyes. Children saluted as the carriage passed. Boy Scouts, veterans and a motorcycle group lined up a half-mile long, holding full- sized flags tied with yellow ribbons.

Anderson, killed Dec. 4 in western Iraq, would have wanted it this way - the 21-gun salute, the white doves and several hundred people - including the governor and governor-elect - coming to his funeral.
"He just loved to be the center of attention," said his cousin, Tiffany Green. "He's looking down on all of us, and he's smiling right now."

In a standing room-only ceremony, Anderson was remembered as an energetic, driven young man with an infectious sense of humor who loved baseball, fishing and telling exaggerated stories. The Longmont High School graduate followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Navy, then repeatedly requested an assignment with the Marines on the front lines.

Fellow sailors said he loved the Iraqi people and that as a medic, he was one of the few allowed to talk to women and children.

"My brother is the one that left his home ... and risked his life and died so I would have a better one," Kyle Anderson said, pausing as his voice cracked. "We can never repay him. "

The day before he died, Anderson e-mailed home a request that his family send out Christmas cards from him. Instead, they passed them out at the funeral.

"God gets us through our tough times," Anderson wrote. "Please remember those heroes that I fought beside. May they never be forgotten."

He added a last request, one that made many in the packed church chuckle: "Would someone send me beer?"

Anderson's memorial service started in the dark with a slide show of him as a baby, holding a lunch box before school and in his baseball uniform.

His brother pumped his fist in the air as Toby Keith's patriotic anthem, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," rang in the sanctuary.

At the ceremony's close, Adm. Brian Brannman awarded Anderson a Purple Heart.

Outside, sailors and Marines lifted the flag from Anderson's oak casket, folded it and handed it to his parents. Then they placed the casket back in the carriage for its journey to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Several hundred people stood in the chilly air, flags flapping above their heads.

"Does this happen every time a soldier dies overseas?" Pastor Tom Beaman asked of the community outpouring.

"It would be nice. It would be fitting."

From the Denver Post

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