Joey Strong laid to rest

THORNTOWN, Ind. — Brisk winds could not sweep away the emotion evident at Maple Lawn Cemetery Monday as SPC. Joseph A. L. Strong was buried with full military honors.

More than 1,500 people attended Strong’s funeral at Western Boone Jr.-Sr. High School; hundreds joined the miles-long funeral cortege to the cemetery in Thorntown, held under a crisp blue, cloudless sky.

Strong died Dec. 26 about 50 miles south of Baghdad, when his HUMVEE overturned during a combat patrol. He is the first Boone County resident to die in Iraq.

Brandon Youkey, Strong’s best friend, said he was “thankful ... for his great sacrifice for freedom, but am deeply saddened by his loss.

“I loved Joey, and it will never be the same without him,” Youkey said.

The Rev. Merv McNair, who officiated at the funeral, praised the mourners. “What a tribute you people have made to Joey Strong,” McNair said.

Brigadier Gen. Mike Turner, deputy commander of Fort Knox, Ky., eulogized Strong’s performance as the epitome of “professionalism and selfless service.”

“He was a very skilled machine gunner,” Turner said. “He loved his job. He was a very skilled shot.”

Turner read a note from one of Strong’s squad mates in the Third Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Strong, the note read, “was able to bring a smile to everyone’s face. Nothing would slow him down.”

A citation posthumously awarding Strong the Bronze Star for meritorious service said of his death, “no greater honor can be given than his sacrifice.”

The mourners responded with a standing ovation.

McNair told how, during a talk he had with Strong, the soldier “called upon Christ to be his savior.” “I said, ‘thank God, Joey,’” McNair told the mourners. “‘I’ll see you in heaven.’”

More than 50 members of the Patriot Guard Riders, each holding an American flag, lined the entrance to the school as mourners arrived and as Strong’s casket was carried to the hearse by a military funeral detail.

The funeral procession passed under a gigantic “garrison flag” suspended between aerial trucks from the Lebanon and Zionsville fire departments. Police cars and fire trucks escorted the hearse; members of the Patriot Guard Riders swung their motorcycles into the procession. Then the parking lot slowly emptied as hundreds of cars joined the cortege to Maple Lawn Cemetery.

As the funeral procession moved mournfully along Indiana 75, individuals paid their respects to Strong, a 2003 Western Boone graduate.

A lone woman, clothed in black, stood in her yard. At another intersection, five young people stood, bundled against the bitter wind, holding an American flag.

Entering Thorntown, groups stood, waving American flags. Where the procession turned onto Grant Street toward the cemetery, a police officer stood at rigid attention, holding a salute. The crowd thickened along the street as Boone County paid a silent, emotional tribute to its first resident to die in the Iraq war.

The route was lined with small American flags that grew closer together the nearer to the cemetery. Flags were placed less than a foot apart on both sides of Grant Street, near the cemetery.

Eight non-commissioned officers carried Strong’s casket to his grave, where his family, friends and dozens of strangers waited.

After a firing squad salute, a bugler played “Taps.” The military escort slowly folded the flag that had draped Strong’s casket. Solemnly, it was passed to a sergeant who held it steady as another NCO carefully placed the firing squad’s expended cartridges into a fold.

Turner somberly took the flag and presented it to Strong’s mother, Terri Batts.

Jim Moxey, Brownsburg, who commanded the Patriot Guard Riders group, said more riders would have come out but for the bitterly cold weather. Some came from as far as Fort Wayne and from southern Indiana to honor Strong, he said.

Among local law enforcement, planning for the funeral began shortly after the announcement of Strong’s death, said Boone County Sheriff Ken Campbell. He credited Chief Deputy Mike Nielsen, Sgt. Tony Harris and reserves commander Bob Craig with making sure everything went as planned.

The department, along with other local police, worked with the military, Western Boone officials and representatives from Myers Mortuary in a total team effort to make things as easy as possible for the Strong family.

That cooperation, along with the tremendous turnout from the community, are what Campbell said makes Boone County a great place.

“We live (here) because of the people who live here and call Boone County home,” he said.

From the Star

Related Link:
Joey Strong remembered

Related Link:
Joseph A. Strong killed in rollover accident