Soldier laid to rest

Published June 18, 2006
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

GREEN - The mournful song was Hector the Hero.

It was played by Cleveland Pipes and Drums member and Brecksville police officer Joseph Grzelak on bagpipes as he slowly walked in front of the flag-draped coffin of Ohio Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Daniel B. Crabtree as it was carried into The Chapel in Green.

Members of the military and nearly 100 uniformed police officers, including dozens from Cuyahoga Falls and Hartville, stood at attention and saluted at the church's west entrance as the coffin of the nine-year veteran of the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department passed by.

The song echoed through the massive church as several hundred people stood for the funeral for the Green resident who died in Iraq on June 8, 2006, in a roadside bombing.

The funeral for the 31-year-old Crabtree -- who is survived by wife, Kathy, and daughter, Mallory -- brought out most of the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department.

Volunteers from Stow, Hudson, Copley Township, Tallmadge and Silver Lake helped with afternoon police duties in Cuyahoga Falls so most members of the department could attend, said Mayor Don Robart.

``Everyone loved him,'' Robart said of Crabtree.

Two Columbus officers drove in Saturday morning for the service. Sgt. Steve Redding, 34, of London, Ohio, had worked a night shift Friday, did not sleep Saturday morning and had to work another night shift Saturday.

``I'm here to honor a fallen hero,'' said Redding of Crabtree, who was his wife's stepbrother.

Two Michigan State Police troopers also attended the service.

Trooper B.C. Smith said Rodney Goss, a trooper at the Monroe, Mich., post, is in Crabtree's unit in Iraq. Goss had sent an e-mail to the state police post asking Smith to attend the service on his behalf. So Smith and Trooper T.C. Sproull drove from Michigan to pay their respects.

Crabtree was a Green Beret and a member of a Special Forces unit based in Columbus.

During the funeral, Steve Hodges, a longtime friend, read a letter he wrote to Crabtree's 17-month-old daughter: ``The proudest moment of his life was when you were born, Mallory.''

Outside the church, firetrucks from the Green and Cuyahoga Falls fire departments extended their ladders and flew a 36-by-24-foot American flag for Crabtree and his family.

Hundreds of people, most holding flags, stood along the route from the church to the cemetery in Lake Township.

In Green, along Raber Road, Ron Stoudt and his sister Karleen Cope stood under the shade of some trees waiting for the procession.

``I just have to do it,'' said the 50-year-old Stoudt.

For most of state Route 619 from Mayfair Road to Cleveland Avenue Northwest, small flags were placed on either side of the road about 10 feet apart.

In Lake Township, near Greenlawn Cemetery, 60-year-old Navy veteran Randy Spargo of Lake Township was filled with emotion before the funeral procession arrived.

``It's a shame we fight wars with cowards,'' he said. ``The person who set off the bomb was a coward. They didn't face him like a man.''

The funeral procession included about 75 police vehicles, 35 motorcycles and about 110 other cars, said Lt. Dave Hills of the Summit County Sheriff's Department.

In one of those cars was Jason Blankenship, a close friend of Crabtree, who last week went door to door in Lake Township and Green and persuaded nearly 60 business owners to put signs out in honor of his friend.

``I'll never forget Dan,'' he said.

Kent resident Don Berg, 62, a Vietnam veteran, stood near the entrance to the cemetery and held a sign of thanks to Crabtree. ``It's an honor to be here for him,'' he said.

Lake Township resident Brenda Jones, 62, stood near the Uniontown Chapel of Praise and watched as the hearse carrying the soldier's body passed in front of her.

``It breaks my heart,'' she said.