Soldier killed in Iraq
buried in Hudsonville
Saturday, May 06, 2006
By Pat Shellenbarger
The Grand
Rapids Press
HUDSONVILLE -- When one
of his Army buddies was planning to be married, Rick
Herrema saw a challenge in getting the groom and dozens
of friends from their base at Fort Bragg, N.C., to the
wedding in Tampa, Fla. He paid $1,200 for a
used school bus, fixed the engine, carpeted the
interior, painted the outside black with orange flames
and drove them there. That was typical of Sgt.
Richard Herrema, recalled Andy Bardeen, the groom and
fellow soldier. "Literally, one time Rick gave me
the shirt off his back," he said.
Herrema, 27, of
Hudsonville, was buried Friday, 10 days after he was
killed by small arms fire in Baghdad, one of more than
2,415 American soldiers -- including 82 from Michigan --
to die in Iraq since the war began.
"We cannot describe our
grief," his parents, Richard and Mary Herrema said in a
written statement, "but Rick would want everyone to know
he died doing what he loved, fighting for his brothers
and for this country ... . There is some solace Rick did
not die alone or in vain, as he was surrounded by
extraordinary men."
Friends and family
members recalled him as a man of humor, generosity,
integrity and humility.
He was a loyal NASCAR fan
and the kind of brother who, while picking up a younger
sister at school, waited until she reached for the door
handle, hit the gas, surged ahead a few feet, stopped,
then repeated the prank several more times.
He was "a big brother who would bug you, but always had
your back," his younger sister, Kate, said through
tears, standing with his other sister, Janie.
Longtime friend Ryan
Roede called him a "a rock that I could lean on through
thick and thin" and "the most humble man I ever met in
my life." Army buddy Jason Marker described
him in a word: "Passion. What I'm talking about is the
passion he felt for all of us. Every thought and every
prayer was for us."
Herrema, a 1997 Unity
Christian High School graduate, enlisted seven years ago
but only had been in Iraq three weeks when he was
fatally shot. As an Army Special Forces team
leader, he was well aware of the danger. Knowing he
might die, Herrema chose a biblical passage from Romans
to be read at his funeral: "In all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels
nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"I think we all recognize
we lost a fine young man in the sands of Iraq," the Rev.
Stephen Steenstra said, "one of many who paid the
ultimate price for our freedoms." Honored by a 21-gun
salute and a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace," Herrema
was buried in a hilltop cemetery not far from the farm
where he grew up. The notes of Taps echoed across the
fields.
