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Final farewell to soldier

Cpl. Aaron Griner, a new father, died in Afghanistan. His funeral was held today at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tampa. He will be buried in New York.

 

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published July 14, 2006

	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
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TAMPA — He was baptized in Sacred Heart Catholic Church. He took his first communion there. Once, he fainted at Sacred Heart, after a priest suggested ordination.

Cpl. Aaron Griner, 24, returned to his home church Friday morning, to a sacrament his family hoped never to witness.

At the stroke of 10 a.m., while Griner’s young wife bowed her head in tears and clutched their infant son to her chest, the white-gloved hands of strangers ushered the casket through the doorway.

Years before he became an Army medic and headed to the southwest of war-torn Afghanistan, Griner spent his days at the church school — learning his ABCs, how to share, how to pray.

Now, his family was learning how to let him go.

“Many of the heroic qualities of Aaron began before he joined the military or became a husband and father,” Father Sean O’Brien told those gathered for the soldier’s funeral mass.

Sixteen days earlier, a military official said, Griner had been seated in the back driver’s side seat of an armored  Humvee, in the seventh vehicle of a 22-vehicle caravan traveling across the Helmand Province during a tactical mission.

An anti-tank land mine left behind during 25 years of wars exploded just under Griner, at the left rear tire, according to Army spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick.

Griner was the only person to die.

On Friday, the former soccer player’s 6-foot-2 body looked heavy in the hands of seven National Military Honor Guard members as they relinquished it to eight civilian men Griner knew.

As the uniformed officers removed the flag draped across the casket, Griner’s loved ones replaced it with a white funeral pall, signifying his baptism into Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

“Even though you do not see him, you love him,” one relative read aloud from the First Epistle of Peter, delivering words of hope to Griner’s despondent  but devout Catholic family.

“Our faith is what keeps us together,” Griner’s mother, Anita Lovallo of Tampa, had said a few days earlier.

On Friday, she stood tall, consoling her son’s new wife, Amanda Helmer Griner, 25, of New York, and taking turns holding 5-month-old Austin James, born four weeks before Aaron was deployed with the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum.

Griner had entered the military at 21 while looking for a career path. The medical training he received enabled him to deliver humanitarian services and gave him hope for a future career as a nurse.

Though he knew his mother did not approve of the war he was fighting, Griner still made her proud. He considered his mission one of peace. Like the Peace Corps, he said.

In his death, Griner was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. But it was his compassionate spirit that Lovallo will always treasure. That and his constant smile, the one that earned him the nickname “Grinner.’’

Griner was the light of his siblings’ lives, sister Annie Van Horn, 26, said earlier this week. She and Megan Griner, 22, called their brother “Buddy” and often coerced him into their games. As kids, they would pin him down and paint his toenails.

Annie had squealed with delight at his birth.

Friday, she wept, following his coffin alongside her sister, their mother, their father, Ernest Griner, and Stephanie Bridges, a cousin who grew up with them.

Griner’s body will be flown to New York, where his widow will bury him Wednesday, his sister said.

Donations to Griner’s wife and baby may be mailed to Amanda Griner in care of Anita Lovallo, 5709 N. Seminole Ave., Tampa, 33604.
 
Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at (813) 226-3383 or rcatalanello@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 16, 2006, 11:07:36]