Solemn Gathering For Mashpee's Fallen

By BRIAN H. KEHRL
As dusk turned to night on Monday, hundreds of cream-colored candles at the Veterans Garden at Mashpee Community Park took over for the setting sun. The flickering individual lights blurred together to make a soft orange glow that filled the small garden.
About 500 people were gathered to remember the lives and mourn the loss of two former Mashpee residents in the past week and another just one year earlier.
Marine Private First Class Daniel A.C. McGuire, who graduated in 2007 from Mashpee High School, was killed early last Thursday morning during a small arms attack on the post he was guarding outside of Fallujah, Iraq.
Army Private First Class Paul E. Conlon Jr., a 2005 MHS graduate, was killed last Friday morning by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Army Staff Sergeant Alicia A. Birchett, a 29-year-old member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and mother of three young boys, died on August 9, 2007, following a truck accident outside of Baghdad, Iraq.
First organized by the family of Pfc. Conlon and intended to be a small vigil for his family and close friends, the candlelight vigil grew under the weight of the two deaths that had occurred so close together. It turned into an organic gathering of those who knew the fallen soldiers intimately, and others who barely or did not even know either them but felt they should pay their respects. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5489 in Mashpee joined active duty soldiers dressed in fatigues and military dress. Mashpee Police Department officers directed traffic and helped organize behind the scenes, an assistance for which relatives of Pfc. Conlon said they were extremely grateful.
The event was somber, and but for an upbeat version of “God Bless America” played over the public address system and a few speeches by public officials and friends, a quiet hush lay over the crowd for more than two and a half hours at the park.
John J. Cahalane, chairman of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen, said the town has lost three of its best in the past year. “We are here to show the families that we will never forget their service and sacrifice,” he said.
State Representative Jeffrey D. Perry said, “Freedom is not free and there is a terrible, tragic, and personal price to pay for the freedom we enjoy.”
State Representative Matthew C. Patrick asked that God bless all three of the fallen soldiers.
Each of the three public officials seemed to struggle putting words together, clearly shaken by the event.
Earlier in the evening, Senator Edward M. Kennedy met with the families of both Pfc. Conlon and Pfc. McGuire, at Pfc. Conlon’s aunt and uncle’s house in Sandwich. The senator, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, expressed his sorrow for the families’ loss and his gratitude for their sons’ service, Mark McGuire, Daniel’s father, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The McGuires did not attend the candlelight vigil.
By descriptions given by friends and family at the event, the two young men were opposites in many ways. Pfc. McGuire was clean cut, often quiet, raised in a conservative Christian family. Pfc. Conlon wore his hair in a variously colored mohawk and dressed to set himself apart, outgoing to the extent that he would make an impression on even a casual passerby.
But while the two were profoundly different in demeanor and style, both were described as being utterly selfless in their civilian and military lives.
Cody Lopes, a Centerville resident who said he met and immediately became friends with Pfc. Conlon in the eighth grade, said his friend was friends with everyone, was always there for his friends, and would always do what he could to help others.
The Conlon family’s pastor recalled when Pfc. Conlon was younger, his aunt needed a lung transplant, and Pfc. Conlon was set on providing it. The aunt, however, ended up getting a lung from someone outside of the family.
Thomas Dolan, who said he was “best friends” in high school with Pfc. McGuire, said his friend was in tune with the emotions of others around them. “He was never happy unless everyone around him was happy,” Mr. Dolan said.
And that care for others shared by both young men, that sense of sacrifice and altruism translated into a desire to join the military, a desire also shared by both since their youth. They were said to have died doing what they wanted and loved to do.
“Most of all they wanted to serve this country,” William Baron, Pfc. Conlon’s uncle, told the audience. When the two families met earlier that evening, they discussed how the two young men were brothers in arms now, and by extension, the two families were joined as one, Mr. Baron said.
He said both young men were looking down on the gathering from above, “so look up and smile.”
A member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) sang what tribe members described as an “honor song” to a slow, melodic drum beat. A Mashpee tribe member told the audience he was grateful for being included in the event, though no one from the tribal council spoke at the event.
After the speeches were finished, and the more formal aspects of the event had run their course, dozens of friends and family members remained, some for more than 45 minutes after. Many lined up and filed by Pfc. Conlon’s mother and other family members, hugging, crying, releasing powerful emotions.
They knelt down in front of the flowers and makeshift memorial that was laid in front of the garden’s engraved stone monument, which reads: “Mashpee Honors The Brave Men And Women Who Served Our Country In The Cause Of Freedom.” With candles, shared memories, embraces, it was a night to do just that.