Tearful service honors Marine from Alliance

Published Oct. 18, 2005
By Kymberli Hagelberg
Beacon Journal staff writer

ALLIANCE - About 400 friends and family members crowded into an Alliance funeral home to honor 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Morgan McVicker.

The 2003 West Branch High School graduate died Oct. 6, 2005, in Al Karmah, Iraq, where he was providing security for military convoys. McVicker was killed by a roadside bomb.

At the service, soldiers, sailors and Marines in dress uniform stood next to teenagers wearing high school jackets and listened as speakers celebrated McVicker's short life.

One by one, the Marine's sister, his pastor and fellow Marines described a young man who valued his friends, his faith and his country.

Mollie McVicker read from the poem Final Inspection about a dead soldier taking account of his life on Judgment Day.

``You've borne your burdens well,'' God tells the soldier in the poem. ``Walk peacefully on heaven's streets. You've done your time in hell.''

Marine Cpl. Ben Fiddler, McVicker's roommate, said his friend was unique.

``In the military, you're limited in the people you can choose your friends from,'' he said. ``Having Dan for a friend was a blessing. . . . Nobody didn't like this guy.''

The Rev. Mitchell Funkhouser, McVicker's pastor at First Brethren Church of North Georgetown, spoke at length about McVicker's faith and his correspondence with the Marine from the war zone, which ended with a letter he received just this week.

Many times his voice broke with emotion.

``I'm crying. . . . I don't care,'' Funkhouser said. ``There are Marines here crying, too.''

In his last letter to the pastor, written Aug. 27, McVicker talked about his role escorting other troops. ``They call us the guardians,'' the Marine wrote. ``It's a humbling title.''

Funkhouser said McVicker took his faith to war with him and became a man on the battlefield.

``Dan didn't have to be afraid,'' the pastor said. ``He took the promise of the Lord to heart. . . . There was a savior on the other side waiting to take him home.''

Funkhouser told those gathered for the service that they could expect to be cared for in their grief as well. ``Not trouble, not distress or famine can separate us from the love of God,'' he said.

Outside the funeral home, people lined the street. Bundled against the fall chill, many held flags and waved as the procession passed on its way to Highland Memorial Park cemetery.

Retired Marines James Holben of the Firestone Park area of Akron and Richard Dukeman of North Canton rode in the procession on sleek Harleys.

The men have attended 35 funerals together since 2004.

Holben even changed his motorcycle upholstery to solid black.

``I tell people I bought this with all the quarters I put away while I was on active duty,'' the 48-year-old retired serviceman said. ``I went to all black so it would have a more escort look for the funerals.''

Holben and Dukeman are members of Rolling Thunder and Leathernecks, Motorcycle Club International. They have made it their mission to attend the funerals of local veterans.

``It is our honor and privilege to show support, not only to the Marine but to his family,'' Holben said. ``We're here to honor his sacrifice.''