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Hundreds fill a church in St. Petersburg and travel north to Florida National Cemetery in Sumter County for a final salute.
By ALICIA CALDWELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- One by one, the soldiers arrived.
One carried his boots. Several carried his casket. Many brought memories of fallen comrade Spc. Marc A. Anderson. They all carried sadness in their hearts.
The funeral Mass on Monday for Anderson, an Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan, held different shades of pain for the different circles of people in his life.
About 600 of those people filled the pews at St. Raphael Catholic Church on St. Petersburg's Snell Isle to show their respect for the 30-year-old Fort Myers man who died this month while trying to rescue a stranded soldier.
His school family from Fort Myers Middle School Academy lost a popular math teacher. His military family lost a fellow fighter. His immediate family lost a son and brother.
"It's a very, very sad time for us," his father, David Anderson, said before the service, a tangle of television microphone wires hanging from his black funeral suit. "In the same respect, it is also a very proud time. Our son gave his life for his country, and if he was going to go, that's the way he wanted it."
David Anderson, a decorated Ranger who served three tours of duty in Vietnam in the 1960s, and his wife, Judith, are from Jacksonville. Another son, Steve, lives in St. Petersburg and is a member of St. Raphael.
A few yards away from where the father spoke to reporters, Jim McLaughlin, 57, of Clearwater, was pacing in the parking lot. McLaughlin said he had attended more memorial services than he can count. A Ranger for 24 years, he is national vice president of the 75th Ranger Regiment Association.
Rangers, said McLaughlin, are a brotherhood of sorts. That support was evident Monday, as more than 50 uniformed Rangers attended the 90-minute funeral Mass. One of them, a former roommate and good friend, choked back tears as he delivered a eulogy.
"The only thing that gets me through these days," said Russell Zayas, who is now studying at the University of Tampa, "is that he lived and he died by the Ranger creed."
That is, never surrender, and never leave a fallen comrade behind. Anderson was among seven soldiers who died in a nine-hour fight March 4, as they tried to rescue a Navy SEAL who had fallen from a helicopter during an attack by al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
Several hundred mourners made the 70-mile trip north for Anderson's burial at Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell. As they stood on a hillside, the only sound came from eight pairs of jump boots worn by the Ranger pallbearers as they marched the casket to a small clearing for a final ceremony.
As they passed, dozens of Rangers saluted as one. Soldiers fired a 21-gun salute in Anderson's honor.