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As a large crowd waited outside Aboite Lutheran Church on Wednesday to pay respects to a local paratrooper killed during combat in Iraq this month, only scattered whispers and the sound of flags fluttering in the wind could be heard.
Funeral services were held for Cpl. Ryan A. Woodward, 22, who died Sept. 8 in Balad, northwest of Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small-arms fire during combat operations.
Dozens of people, many from the motorcycle group Patriot Guard Riders and local American Legion posts, lined the church parking lot before and during the funeral, standing quietly with American flags in hand. One huge flag, held up by two ladder trucks from the Aboite Township Fire Department and Fort Wayne Fire Departments, draped the entrance to the parking lot.
Inside the church, the sanctuary was filled with hundreds of family, friends, soldiers and community members who came to say goodbye to Woodward.
Movable walls were pushed back to allow the overflow crowd, who had been waiting outside to sit in the fellowship hall for the service.
While Boyz II Men's “It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and Toby Keith's “American Soldier” played, pictures of Woodward as a little boy, a teen and a soldier flashed on a screen at the front of the sanctuary.
The Rev. Rich Pagan, who led the service, said Woodward's adventurous, outgoing personality and “infectious smile,” which were evident in the slideshow, were just some of the qualities about him that would be missed.
“It's hard to say goodbye because of the man he was,” Pagan said.
Woodward, a 2003 graduate of Carroll High School, joined the Army in February 2006.
After completing basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., he was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., where he was assigned as a scout javelin gunner to the 82nd Airborne Division. He had been serving in Iraq since December.
Woodward loved traveling, riding motorcycles and meeting new people, and he never feared anything, his mother, Sue Woodward, said. He was proud to join the military and follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle.
“He wanted to do something with his life,” Pagan said. “He wanted to make a contribution.”
Woodward was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Metal, the Iraq Campaign Metal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the Parachutist's Badge because of his military service.
The awards were presented to his parents by members of the 82nd Airborne Division during the service.
He was posthumously awarded the “prestigious” Bronze Star for his combat service and the Purple Heart for the injuries he suffered in combat Sept. 8, said Staff Sgt. Shannon Wright, with the 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office.
After the service, Fort Wayne and Allen County police escorted the long funeral procession for the 8-mile drive to Lindenwood Cemetery, where Woodward was laid to rest. People lined the roads as the procession passed, holding hands over their hearts and waving flags.
At the graveside service, the Fort Wayne Fire Department Pipe and Drum Corps played “Amazing Grace.” A 21-gun salute was fired in three volleys, and then a single bugler, standing about 100 feet from the service, played “Taps.”
In silence, six soldiers removed the flag from Woodward's casket, folded it carefully, passed it crisply to the end of their line and presented it his family.
He is survived by his mother, father Michael, sisters Tasha and Brooke and brother Ben.
mhubartt@jg.net
