Specialist Blount's Funeral

Steven Girard, Cindy Morgan and Larry Shows did not know Army Specialist William Anthony Blount a week ago, but this weekend each played a role -- along with countless others in the community -- in paying respect to the 21-year-old soldier who died April 7 while serving in Iraq.

Blount, a Petal native, was killed along with his commanding officer, Lt. Robert Wilson Collins of Tyrone, Ga., when his unit's vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Mosul, Iraq.

According to an announcement of their deaths posted on the US Department of Defense Web site, Blount had been promoted posthumously last Monday from private first class to specialist.

Moore Funeral Service in Petal handled the arrangements of his burial, beginning Thursday morning, when Specialist Blount's body was flown in from Dover, Del., to Pine Belt Regional Airport.

Moore Funeral Director Steven Girard said people from the Pine Belt community were there to show their support from the get-go.

"The community usually turns out for anyone like that," Girard said.

Girard, who has worked with Moore Funeral Service for 14 years, said there has been one other military funeral in the area since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and both have drawn significant shows of support from the community.

"Any military service always touches your heart," Girard said.

In preparation for Blount's arrival, Petal Mayor Hal Marx encouraged local residents who wished to show their respect for the soldier and support for his family to stand along Evelyn Gandy Parkway with flags in hand, according to a Hattiesburg American report.

Marx also ordered all of the flags in Petal to be flown at half-staff Thursday through Saturday, the day of his burial.

As the hearse carrying Blount's body was being driven to the Moore Funeral Home in Petal, it passed by Petal High School where he graduated in 2007. Outside were students from both Petal Elementary School and the high school, holding up hand-written signs of support and waving flags, Girard said.

The 30 or 40 small signs were arranged along the hallway leading into the funeral parlor where Blount's casket stood during the viewing held at 5:30 Friday evening. Each carried messages of thanks, condolence, prayers and hope for Blount and his family.

Blount's mother, father, expecting wife and several close friends and family members were nearby, some wearing buttons pinned to them bearing a picture of the fallen soldier. At the start of the viewing, dozens of people -- some relatives, friends, neighbors, even strangers -- queued up in a line winding almost outside the funeral home waiting to pay their respects.

Standing by were the Patriot Guard Riders, members of a national organization made up mostly of motorcycle enthusiasts who volunteer to escort soldiers killed in action through their funeral processions. Four riders were stationed along the entrance of the funeral home during the viewing, and at least 20 others were on hand to take turns standing in the flag line every 15 minutes for about three hours.

Cindy Morgan, a PGR member and Southern Miss student, said it was an honor to have the Blount family invite the group to escort their son.

Morgan had been standing at the Pine Belt Regional Airport alongside about 75 other riders, some PGR members, some other groups and some from Camp Shelby, as Specialist Blount had been carried off the plane the day before. She and her two friends, all mothers of soldiers, were having a hard time keeping a strong face that morning, Morgan said.

Morgan has participated in several events with the PGR, but this is only the second time she has attended the services of a soldier killed in action. She said while the group's main mission is to guard fallen soldiers' families from disruptive protesters, they often attend veterans' funerals to offer their respect as well, and generally only go wherever they are invited.

She rode with them following the hearse carrying Blount Thursday, and stood in the flag line Friday night. Saturday, Morgan said about 80 other riders led the funeral procession from Moore Funeral Home in Petal to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Oak Grove, where Blount was a member.

Morgan had gone ahead to Highland Cemetary in Hattiesburg with a few others to prepare the PGR flag line there, and make sure no disruptive protesters decided to show up. Rumors had been flying around all weekend, Morgan said, that Frank Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church would be petitioning to demonstrate at Blount's funeral.

"Crazies or uglies," are the only terms Morgan can think of to describe them -- or at least the only terms allowable in print. The PGR was created to combat that group of "religious zealots," according to patriotguard.org.

As the 80-or-so motorcycles in Blount's procession rumbled through Hattiesburg on the way to Oak Grove, a police escort blocked major intersections along the way to aid their passage. The stopped cars, waiting patiently through green lights, idled on streets while their drivers got out to salute or put a hand over their hearts as Blount passed.

Standing outside in the driveway of Oakleigh Manor on Lincoln Road in Hattiesburg, Larry Shows held an American flag and waited for the procession to come by. He had gathered two neighbors, Brooke Graves and Susan Maxwell, to stand with him after reading about Blount's funeral arrangements in local news, he said.

Shows, who taught at Hawkins Elementary School in Hattiesburg for 25 years, has three brothers who have served in the military.

"We owe respect to those who fight for the freedoms we have... that's the least we can do for someone who gave it all," Shows said.