Aaron Gautier laid to rest

HAMPTON -- The American flag draping the silver casket sitting at the front of Fort Monroe's Chapel of the Centurian was symbolic of the man Army Cpl. Aaron Gautier had become.

He was patriotic, dedicated and loyal.

At 19 years old, he had learned what it meant to live honorably and with courage, family and friends said at his funeral Saturday.

The Hampton native enlisted in the Army a little more than a year ago, several months shy of his 18th birthday. In April, he was shipped off to Iraq with the Washington-based 2nd Infantry Division.

And on May 17, he was killed just south of Baghdad while searching for soldiers who went missing after their convoy was attacked days before.

Gautier (pronounced go-TEER) was in his armored vehicle when a roadside bomb detonated. After the explosion, Gautier and his comrades were attacked with small-arms fire.

"He was an infantryman," an Army brigadier general said at the service just before announcing that Gautier had earned the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and a posthumous promotion to corporal for his actions the day he died. "Every time he rolled off a forward operating base, every soldier looked at him with respect."

Symbols of the fun-loving guy Gautier was outside his uniform were inside the casket, a family chaplain said.

Gautier was buried with his favorite board shorts. He had on a T-shirt that read "Got Beer?" and flip-flops with bottle openers in the soles.

He also loved the New York Yankees, roller coasters and music. Specifically, Gautier loved Tracy Lawrence, a country music singer.

Toward the end of the service, the family had one of Lawrence's most poignant songs - "If I Don't Make It Back" - piped through the chapel.

"We went out for beers and a couple of laughs,

Knowing that each bad joke that Jimmy told might just be his last.

So we laughed like the world wasn't at war and we said things to him that we never said before,

And he teared up as he held up his glass."

A few of the young men -some who Gautier grew up with and some he served in the military with - looked solemnly and knowingly at each other.

"He said, "boys, if I don't make it back...

"Have a beer for me.

Don't waste no tears on me.

On Friday nights, sit on the visitors' side and cheer for the home team.

Ride my Camaro 90 MPH down Red Rock Road with 'Born to Run' blastin' on the radio.

And find someone good enough for Amy who will love her like I would have if I don't make it back."

One of Gautier's relatives reached out and gently rubbed the shoulder of a young woman sitting in the front row of the chapel.

She was sobbing.

In addition to an extensive family on the Peninsula - including two sisters and a mother and stepfather in Newport News, and a grandmother, father and stepmother in Hampton - Gautier left behind Lindsey Gautier, whom he married just a few months before he was killed.

It was Lindsey who many of the speakers at the service looked at when they spoke of Gautier's greatest love.

And it was Lindsey who the brigadier general kneeled before at Gautier's gravesite inside the Hampton Veterans Memorial Gardens.

It was to Lindsey that he presented the American flag that draped Gautier's coffin and in her ear that he offered his deepest condolences, giving her the flag on behalf of a grateful nation.

From the Daily Press

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