David Dietrich laid to rest

Eyes welled with tears Wednesday as the Rev. William C. Butts walked to the open casket of Army Pvt. David E. Dietrich, 21, of Marysville, and turned his back to the hundreds who came to pay their respects.

“Into your hands, oh merciful Savior, we commend your soul, David Dietrich ... receive him into your mercy,” Butts prayed, his head bowed over the soldier who died Dec. 29 in Ar Ramadi, Iraq.

The solemn service at the Myers Funeral Home in Mechanicsburg brought together young and old, family members and friends, veterans and community members — about 315 in total.

Dietrich was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Friedberg, Germany. According to a Department of Defense Web news release, he died of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire while on combat patrol.

He was in the Army less than seven months and in Iraq less than two months.

“David didn’t have an easy life. I don’t have to recall all of this because most of you already know,” Butts said to the mourners.

Dietrich was left to fend for himself at age 14, friends say. He was in foster care from 14 through 18. From 18 and on, he depended on friends in Marysville for food, shelter and support. “David didn’t have an easy life,” Butts repeated several times in between prayers and scripture readings. “He struggled all the way up.”

Despite difficulties, Dietrich graduated from Susquenita High School in 2004 and later attended Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster to learn collision repair.

He was active in the Boy Scouts until age 18 and achieved the rank of Life Scout, with scoutmasters Craig Raisner and Charles Nelson, who both helped him as if he were a son. Dietrich played on the Susquenita High School football team and became a member of the Marysville Fire Company when he was 14. He also regularly attended the Church of God in Marysville, friends say.

Butts drew on the words of Revelation 3:20: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

“If David would have knocked on your door and said, ‘I want life, I want love,’ would you have let him in?” Butts asked. “In life, did we really appreciate who he was and what he really tried to do?”

“Some of you, yes, you did answer the door,” he said, commending Dietrich’s friends and naming Craig Raisner and Charles Nelson. “Yes, you took care of him, you encouraged him.”

Mourners during the viewing held before the service stopped for long embraces with one another, many with reddened faces, after walking up the casket to say good-bye to their friend.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Dietrich’s sister, Stacey Dietrich, 25, read a poem provided by members of the Vietnam Veterans of America, many who were in attendance. By 11 a.m., about 70 people had walked past a long line of American flags held by members of the national Patriot Guard Riders outside before entering the softly lit funeral home.

Inside, the open casket sat surrounded by flowers. Many friends whispered to one another, asking if they’d seen the many American flags lined up through Marysville in his memory.

Outside, Zach Wright, 19, said he played football with Dietrich “in school and on the weekends” outside the Marysville Lions Club. He said many of Dietrich’s Susquenita High School friends attended the funeral.

Nearby, Shawnee Knight and Lacy Kelly, both 19, said they, too, were friends with Dietrich. “He’s the first person we met when we went to high school,” Kelly said.

Following the service, Dietrich was buried at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Annville.

From the Sentinel

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