The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
TAUNTON — Shane Padraig Duffy was an intense competitor who sought to be the best in everything he did, from wrestling to basketball to hiding a shoulder injury so he could play in a football game.
But the Army sergeant, who would have turned 23 next Sunday, was a tender man as well, never happier than when spending time with his parents, brother, sisters, wife and 8-month-old daughter.
That's how Duffy was remembered in his hometown on Saturday during a funeral that was memorable both for its ceremony and its intimacy. Duffy, the son of Taunton Firefighter Keavin Duffy and Frances Duffy, was killed in action on June 4 while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.
St. Mary's Square in downtown Taunton was transformed for his funeral. Where Broadway and Washington Street meet, two Taunton Fire Department trucks were parked, their ladders forming an arch from which flew a giant American flag.
Along Broadway stood white-gloved, uniformed honor guards from fire and police departments throughout Massachusetts. Facing them along Washington Street were at least 75 representatives of the Patriot Guard Riders in motorcycle vests, holding American flags.
Inside St. Mary's Church, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry lauded Duffy for his sacrifice, his brother and sisters spoke of his love for them and their admiration for him, and his wife shared excerpts from letters he had written her since his deployment last October.
In one, Duffy wrote about how much he was looking forward to returning home on leave, which occurred just last month. He wrote his wife Jamie that he didn't want to do anything more than "relax with you, put on civilian clothes — or not any — have a Coors Lite and talk and make out."
But if she wanted to go somewhere or do something else to celebrate, that was OK, too, Duffy wrote, adding, "As long as you're holding my hand, it doesn't matter."
Their daughter, Mackenzie Roisine Duffy, born on Sept. 11, attended the funeral, dressed like many family members in shades of green to honor her father's Irish heritage. Round-faced and smiling, she wore a green Irish cap topped with the words, "Love You Daddy."
"Don't worry, honey, I will take very good care of our baby girl," Jamie Duffy promised, as tears flowed freely in the church. "You were always my hero, but now you're everybody's."
Keavin Duffy Jr. spoke of his younger brother's "honor, bravery and chivalry."
"I have received many hugs this week, and I'll receive many more in the future, but there will never be the one hug I'll be looking for, the Shane Duffy pick-you-up-off-the-ground-I-love-you bear hug," said Keavin, now a graduate student.
"When you are remembering and reminiscing about Shane and you feel your heart is breaking, your heart isn't breaking," said Keavin. "It's Shane on your left, giving you a chest slap and saying, 'Who loves ya, who loves ya.'" Shanon Duffy, who graduated last week from Taunton High School and whose fellow softball team members attended in their uniforms, remembered talking with her brother online and noted that before he returned home last month, he had only seen his daughter for 28 days.
"I love that he chose to fight for our country, but it's hard not to know what's going on over there," Shanon wrote in a scrapbook prepared for her brother's second tour of duty.
It should be no surprise, said Sen. Kerry, that "a firefighter's son would honor the oath that all firefighters take: 'Wherever flames may rage he will be there to save us.' "A patriot, the son of a patriot, answered the call," going to war so that other Americans could live carefree days at home, Kerry said.
On Saturday, which was both Flag Day and the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Army, Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum presented proclamations awarding Duffy the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Iraq Campaign Medal.
Mourners filed from the church to "The Irish Blessing," "God Bless America" and a recording of "The Green Fields of France," a ballad about a soldier, Willie McBride, killed in World War I at age 19.
Duffy's casket was placed in a caisson and pulled by horse along a three-mile route from St. Mary's Square to Taunton Green and on to St. Francis Cemetery off North Walker Street.
Bagpipers and drum and bugle corps beat a slow march as mourners and vehicles followed behind. For miles along the route, residents stood holding flags, or sat on lawn chairs, quietly waiting for the procession to reach them.
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LAFD Funeral Memorial Firefighter Eng. Harry Correllby lyork239,257 views
To his family, please accept the sympathy of a former army grunt 81-85. You can know that he is not forgotten and that his life was shortened, but that it is because he was part of something noble, keeping us free. Rest in peace soldier.
rexanater 3 years ago
We know the dangers that our job brings.
And even though we face risk again and again.
Some of us have to pay the ultimate price, doing the duty, doing what we all have chosen to do, what we stand for and are proud of.
When a collegue dies in action, even though it is on the other side of this planet, I know what mooved this fine collegue and feel the pain my Taunton collegues and all those left behind feel.
Rest in peace my fine collegue, deep respect from the Netherlands
willemzeg 3 years ago 2
Rest in peace young warrior.
You are remembered.
Texgame 3 years ago