Thousands Mourn Tragic Deaths at Memorial for Lima Company in Ohio

CLEVELAND — On the stage sat a helmet, a pair of worn soldier’s boots and a folded American flag. In the audience were thousands who turned out Monday night to honor 16 fallen Marines and their hard-hit Ohio battalion.

"Our own band of brothers," Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones said during an hour-long memorial service of prayers, bagpipes intoning "Amazing Grace" and montages of the troops from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines who died in the past two weeks in Iraq.

"Close your eyes and listen to your sons, fathers, husbands, uncles, brothers and friends. They’re talking to you. They’re saying, ’Please celebrate my life. Please have no regrets,’" Tubbs Jones told the Marines’ families and friends. "’We did not spend all the time we wanted, yet the time we had was well spent.’"

Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla opened the service with a prayer asking God to "give rest and reward to our fallen brothers, the heroic Marines of the 3/25th."

Robert Derga, whose son Cpl. Dustin Derga, a member of the battalion, was killed in May, described the support as unbelievable.

"We’re just overwhelmed," Derga said. "It’s good to see the community support. It’s what Dustin fought for."

Lt. Col. Kevin Rush thanked the audience in Cleveland’s International Exposition Center for its support on behalf of the battalion.

"These Marines have been giving their all and sadly some of them made the ultimate sacrifice," Rush said. "While it is fitting for a moment of silence, I believe a round of applause for all of our fighting forces is a little more appropriate."

Thousands stood, clapped and cheered for several seconds before the lights went dark and the names and photos of the fallen Marines were flashed on a screen while classical music played. Many of the Marines’ relatives were moved to tears.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, an anti-war Democrat, said there may be disagreement about the war’s mission, but that support for the troops is strong.

"Their lives were sacred, their commitment to our country sacred," said Kucinich, who organized the memorial with Mayor Mark Elliott.

Meanwhile, in Ashland, about 70 miles southwest of Cleveland, more than 300 people gathered at a church for the funeral of another battalion member, Lance Cpl. Christopher P. Lyons, 24, of Shelby.

Lyons and fellow Marine from the unit died July 28 when Columbus-based Lima Company was attacked in Cykla. The company lost nine other members last week alongside five other Marines and an interpreter in the deadliest roadside bombing since U.S. troops invaded Iraq. Two days earlier, five Ohio Marines were killed in an ambush.

Families continued to grieve in Brook Park, where streets were lined with American flags, businesses displayed supportive signs such as "Deepest sympathy to the families of the fallen Marines," and residents continued to bring mementos to a chain-link fence surrounding the battalion headquarters.

The fence has become a sea of sadness and sympathy: silk flowers and tiny American flags, a painting of Jesus and dozens of homemade signs containing personal messages.

A typed poem, "Fallen Heroes," was posted with a note written in blue marker from Kristen Keeling, a sister who has felt such pain before. Her brother, Lance Cpl. Thomas Keeling, 23, of Strongsville, was also a member of the 3rd, 25th. He was killed June 9 in an explosion in Iraq.

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