Joshua Burrows laid to rest

The best epitaph for local war victim Josh Burrows came not from a preacher but from a voice in the crowd at his graveside rites.

"What we gave him here today isn't near what he gave to us," the voice said, loud enough to draw affirmative grunts and nods from those nearby. "Not near enough."

The words rang out not far from the green tent over the flag-draped casket of the 20-year-old Army private, a man in uniform barely a year who left his child of 6 months and a wife not yet 19 to fight in the war on terror.

Burrows, a member of the 2005 class of Bossier High School, was killed Nov. 26 in Baghdad, Iraq, when a roadside bomb detonated near the military vehicle he shared with several other soldiers. Burrows' services were in two parts, the first inside a large church in a city setting, the last graveside rites in a quiet country cemetery in Red River Parish.

The auditorium at First Baptist Church of Bossier held a crowd of hundreds, perhaps as many as 1,000 people who paid tribute for nearly two hours, ending with his casket being opened and the mourners filing past for a final tribute.

Mourners included Bossier City Mayor Lo Walker and his predecessor, George Dement, uniformed active-duty Army members from Burrows' unit at Fort Hood, Texas, as well as Louisiana's own Fort Polk, and uniformed members of the other services from here.

Nearly a dozen members of Shreveport's 2/108th Cavalry Squadron attended. Also on hand were more than a dozen members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars District 12 Honor Guard, one of whose members is Burrows' grandfather by marriage, Stan Kolniak.

Like several people, Army recruiter Sgt. James VanHorn noted that Burrows had to fight to enlist in the Army, since he had a general equivalence degree, or GED, and not a traditional graduation.

"Josh, like many young men, was always looking for his calling," said VanHorn, who helped Burrows through months of paperwork to join. Burrows, he said "was a perfect fit for the Army. Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage — he lived these."

Buzz Wojecki, representing the Bossier High School Alumni Association, noted Burrows most decidedly is counted among the school's offspring, and among its saddest elite, those who have died for their country. In his moments speaking to the church, he noted 21 flags behind him, representing the school's graduates who died in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and now, with Burrows, the war on terror.

Burrows' cousin Jessica Davis said he was mischievous and fun but always one of the first to jump in to help, and that while she was surprised at first blush when he enlisted, upon reflection it was exactly what he would do.

"It reminded me exactly of Josh," she said.

"He always loved his family, and would do anything for us."

Sammy Collins, a friend since childhood, joined the Marine Corps earlier this year, and like his buddy, is a private. Burrows' funeral was the first military burial he's attended.

"He was doing what he loved," he said of his friend's service. "There's really nothing more you can say than that."

The graveside services were the most poignant, with tears flowing from Burrows' mother, Donna O'Neal, and his widow, Victoria, as Army Brig. Gen. Michael Rounds, recently on the command staff at Fort Polk and soon to head to new assignment, reportedly to China, handed the folded flags that had draped their loved one's casket.

Rounds said he never served personally with Burrows, but his time with the family showed him what a soldier and person the country and the region lost.

"I know what type of person Josh was because of his family and the community here," he said, thanking them for their son and their standing behind their country in its time of need. He said soldiers he talks to today, many younger than Burrows, wonder what their service will mean in years to come, and he said he tells them that 20, 30 or 40 years from now, "you'll be able to tell them when the country needed your service, you stood up."

He said when Burrows' son, Landon Ray, learns about his father years from now, and looks at the Good Conduct, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals that were presented at the service, he may know that same feeling, and think, "My dad was a hero."

The burial service in the Mount Zion Cemetery, in rural Red River Parish near Hall Summit, ended with those present releasing red, white and blue balloons into the air, and then a luncheon at the nearby Mount Zion Church.

The triple volley of rifles fired in salute and the notes of taps lingered in the air.

"He deserved all of this," his great-aunt Terry Moseley said as the crowd gathered for the burial.

"He turned out to be such a great guy."

From the Shreveport Times

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