Small Town America
Charlie Bader
Black, white, brown and yellow; male and female; young and old; Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. On Friday, January 19, 2007 they were all at the Clayton Thompson Funeral Home to honor Ryan Berg of Sabine Pass, Texas.
During the standing room only services, the main chapel was filled to capacity and two other areas of the funeral home, which showed the services on closed circuit screens, were completely packed. Many others had to stand in the hallways during the services.
When the procession left the funeral home in Groves on its twenty mile drive to the Pace Cemetery in Sabine Pass, it was led by about five police vehicles followed by a Port Arthur Fire Department truck and approximately 50 Patriot Guard motorcycles. Then came the very lengthy funeral procession.
As it slowly worked its way through Port Arthur all opposing traffic came to a complete stop and every vehicle was pulled over on the side of the road. Many drivers got out of their vehicles and stood by the side of their vehicles to pay their respects to Ryan Berg.
At every major intersection of the route through Port Arthur there were crowds with American flags or holding posters or standing with their right hands over their hearts. The Port Arthur Fire Department had an extension ladder truck with a huge American flag on the ladder that straddled the street and the Port Arthur Memorial High School had a large group of students standing on the sidewalk as the procession passed by. Going through the industrialized southern end of Port Arthur the procession passed thru the Valaro refinery where approximately 100 employees were standing on the side of the road as a sign of respect. Then came the Chevron-Phillips refinery again with large crowds. There was more of the same at the Transit Mix facility and outside the Golden Pass LNG Terminal site where the CBI construction crew was waiting.
After leaving city limits of Port Arthur the route turned from industrial to marshlands for the next few miles. It was quiet and serene with the tall coastal grasses blowing in the wind. There were small American flags taped to all the highway signs on the road leading to Sabine Pass.
Almost a year and a half after Hurricane Rita destroyed 118 of the town's 245 homes, the small coastal community of Sabine Pass still shows the impact of the devastation with FEMA trailers, some blue traps on the roofs and lots of empty spaces where there use to be houses.
As the procession entered the town of Sabine Pass and turned on South Gulfway about ten Coast Guard personnel in their bright orange clothing stood at attention on the corner of the main intersection. From the edge of Sabine Pass all the way to the cemetery there were small American flags placed about every 30 meters on both sides of the road. Throughout the small town there were people standing on their porches watching the procession pass by.
The very small Pace Cemetery in Sabine Pass originated in the mid 1800s. It has a grove of very large oak trees in the center of the cemetery and the southerly breeze blows in from the nearby Gulf of Mexico.
A traditional military service was conducted concluding with the the presentation of the American flags to the family. In addition to the family and many friends of Ryan Berg, in attendance was an Honor Guard from Fort Polk, a contingent of the 1/12th Cavalry from Fort Hood, representatives from the Company B Family Readiness Group, a Bugler, in a bowler hat, who played Taps and two bagpipers who played Amazing Grace.
This was a somber event but it was very emotional to see the support of small town America honoring the sacrifice of Ryan Berg.
Specialist Ryan Russell Berg,
3rd Platoon, Company B, 1/12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division
died January 9th of wounds from small arms fire in Baqubah, Iraq.