Cory Kosters laid to rest

Hundreds gathered Monday for the funeral of Pfc. Cory Kosters, one of six North Carolina-based soldiers killed by a single roadside bomb in Iraq earlier this month.

The 19-year-old was the youngest killed in the explosion in Samarra on March 5, the same day The Woodlands High School graduate was first scheduled to return home after being deployed in August.

But Kosters postponed his trip so that another soldier expecting a child back home could return to his family, said Larry York, a pastor at Crossroads Baptist Church.

York said the decision by Kosters, the Houston suburb's first native to die in the war, was instinctive.

"I guess we could say today that Cory gave his life so someone could experience new life," York said in Tuesday's editions of The Courier of Conroe.

The funeral service was on the same day as the war's fourth anniversary.

Kosters and the five others killed were stationed in the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C. His family remembered him as a weapons enthusiast who was deeply committed to the military.

During the service, the family shared an e-mail they received from Kosters the day before he died. In the letter, Kosters wrote about his team laughing after he twisted his knee when he fell 5 feet during a mission.

"Hopefully, I'll see you guys soon," Kosters wrote in the e-mail.

Kosters is one of at least 277 Texas soldiers killed since the war began in 2002.

From the Henderson News

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