Jared John Raymond left Swampscott, two years ago, about a month after graduating high school. On Thursday, hundreds filled St. John the Evangelist Church and thousands lined Swampscott streets as legions of police officers and firefighters guided U.S. Army Spc. Jared John Raymond's flag-draped coffin on a procession to the town cemetery to say good-bye. He had been killed in the line of duty Sept. 19 in Balad, Iraq, when the tank he was driving struck an explosive.
Speakers at Raymond's full military funeral reminded the congregation that "Jared was a hero" and told his grandmother her grandson was "everything a Catholic Christian is meant to be." Today, Peter Gelzinis has "A tearful tribute to a 'genuine American hero" at BostonHerald.com that you don't want to miss. He also has a video of the procession that is sure to leave you with watery eyes.
We need to get past fighting among ourselves, here in America, and get on with defeating our radical Islamic enemies in Iraq so we can bring our troops home without the damned jihadists following behind them. Jared Raymond had vowed soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America that he must do something for his country. Not even his love for fast cars could deter him from his mission. As Jared refused to be deterred from fighting to prevent further terrorist attacks on his country, so must the rest of us. You'd think that America could come together as one body and as one voice in doing the same. By doing so, we'd be honoring men like Jared, while seeing to it that their lives were not given in vain.
We salute Spc. Jared John Raymond, and offer his family our prayers for their great loss. America has truly lost one of her finest. Raymond has been posthumously awarded the Good Conduct Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. God bless his family, and God bless America.
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