Brent Dunkleberger laid to rest

The only sound to be heard at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery Wednesday afternoon was the whipping of flags in the wind as more than 100 people gathered to lay to rest the body of Sgt. Brent Dunkleberger.

The 29-year-old Perry County native was killed Dec. 12 in Iraq.

The Patriot Guard Riders, a national group that attends funerals of fallen soldiers, usually traveling by motorcycle, held the flags high to honor the Army sergeant, who was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.

“We come to support the family of the young heroes and pay our respects,” said Joe Zinobile, of Robinson Township, Allegheny County, who has been to some 30 funerals or viewings for soldiers.

The atmosphere was somber at the soldier’s viewing and funeral, held inside the West Perry Middle School gymnasium, where Dunkleberger had most assuredly been when he was a student there.

Fire trucks lend support

More than 300 people came to the service to pay their respects and at least a third travelled on to the burial site, nestled in the rolling countryside of Landisburg.

“It makes your heart feel good” to see such groups, said Helen Reeder of Carlisle, who came to the funeral, with her husband, Charles.

The Reeders and many others at the funeral said they were relieved that expected protesters from Kansas did not attend as threatened.

“There’s just about every one from Perry County” here, noted Glenda Clouser of New Bloomfield, as a dozen or more fire trucks from Perry County and beyond — including Mechanicsburg, Silver Spring Township, Susquehanna Township and Millerstown — drove by the cemetery and lined up.

Dunkleberger was a volunteer with the New Bloomfield Fire Co., said Clouser, who is a friend of one of his aunts.

Friends reflect

A 1996 graduate of West Perry High School, Dunkleberger was a friendly person with a good sense of humor, friends say.

“Brent was always a really happy-go-lucky kind of guy,” said Jamie Thebes of New Bloomfield, who went to high school with Dunkleberger and graduated just one year before him. “I don’t ever remember seeing him sad.”

Another high school classmate, Shawn Kleeman of New Kingston, agreed Dunkleberger had a great sense of humor.

“He was one of the nicest people I ever met,” Kleeman said, adding the main memory he has of Dunkleberger is the nickname he gave him, which was “Susy.”

At the viewing, Dale Kretzing of Elliottsburg said he has known the Dunkleberger family for years. “I saw him grow up,” Kretzing said.

“It was so hard to go down to the family” the day after they learned of his death.

Among those Dunkleberger leaves behind are his wife, Lisa Lynn Weyandt Dunkleberger; four children, Belinda Lee Weyandt, Alexander C. Enright, Kelli Lynn Weyandt Dunkleberger and Zoe Marie Weyandt Dunkleberger; a sister, Marcie A. Emlet of Elliottsburg; his paternal grandmother, Betty F. Dunkleberger of Elliottsburg; and his maternal grandparents, William Sr. and Virginia Kreiser Turner of Shermans Dale.

He was buried next to his paternal grandfather, H. Glenn Dunkleberger.

Military honors

The Rev. Miriam Lynn Nicholson, the pastor at Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church in Elliottsburg, officiated at the funeral service.

“Brent was baptized and confirmed in our church,” Nicholson said, adding the soldier was born and raised in the congregation.

She asked for continued prayers for Brent’s wife and children as they “begin to face life without Brent’s smiling presence.”

During the service, members of the military presented the Dunkleberger’s family with his Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a Combat Action Badge.

The immediate family received Gold Star lapel buttons, given to identify widows, parents and next of kin of members of the armed forces who lost their lives.

“(Dunkleberger) was someone everyone wanted to be around,” said U. S. Army Brig. Gen. Lynn Collyar, adding “his humor relieved tension and improved morale.”

Dunkleberger joined the Army four years ago and served two tours, Collyar said.

He was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle during a convoy security mission in Mosul, Iraq.

“Brent didn’t want to be a hero — ‘I’m only here to do my job,’ he’d tell his father,” Collyar said.

“The U.S. Army is deeply proud to have men and women like Brent.”

From the Sentinel

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