Salute for fallen heroes
Cop’s funeral at St. Pat’s planned after troop tribute
The family of NYPD Detective Joseph Lemm, who was honored Wednesday at a memorial near the site where he died in Afghanistan, is in talks with the Archdiocese of New York to hold his funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
“There’s no specific details now, but [we’re] working things out,” archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said of a possible funeral for Lemm, 45, at the Fifth Avenue cathedral.
The remains of the six service members who died Monday during an assault by a suicide bomber touched down in Delaware Wednesday afternoon, following the memorial at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
With tears in her eyes, Air Force Special Agent Heather Garver spoke before roughly 300 mourners who attended the ceremony inside a tent at the base.
“Today’s the day I remember and honor the sacrifices our fellow airmen made for us, our country and our freedoms,” Garver said, according to Stars and Stripes.
“While we mourn the loss of our family members, and care for our injured, we must remain united. Our fallen heroes would want us to bounce back and press on with the mission we are here to carry out. We may be wounded, but we’re not broken.”
Master Sgt. Aaron Frederick remembered Lemm, callsign “Maniac,” and his fellow New York airman, Louis Bonacasa, callsign “Peacock,” as “warriors and defenders of the highest caliber.”
He added that Bonacasa, also killed in the attack, “wanted to spread his wings and fly.”
At the ceremony, rifles belonging to each of the slain Air Force members were topped with their helmets, with their boots placed below.
“How do we honor these six heroes?” asked Lt. Col. David Kelley, the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing chaplain. “We honor them by pressing on with the mission. The same mission they were willing to give their lives for.”
At the end of the ceremony, attendees paid their respects to the fallen troops, with service members taking a knee before photos of the six soldiers and touching their boots. They then gave each of them a salute.
Afterward, the bodies were flown back to the US in flagdraped coffins to New Castle Air National Guard Base in Delaware, where family members awaited their arrival.