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  • Patriot Guard members and others, in concert with a brisk breeze Saturday afternoon, use flags to block the family of Pfc. Dylan Reid from the visage of funeral protesters from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The funeral was conducted at Lamar, home to members of Reid’s family. Globe/Emily Younker

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October 30, 2010

Crowds line Lamar streets for fallen soldier

By Emily Younker Globe Staff Writer

LAMAR, Mo. — Several blocks of 12th Street were lined on Saturday afternoon with hundreds of people carrying American flags for Army Pfc. Dylan T. Reid. Reid, 24, died Oct. 16 in a noncombat-related incident while serving in Amarah, Iraq. His funeral was conducted Saturday in Lamar, where his family lives.

Cliff “Mug” Hall, assistant state captain of the Patriot Guard, estimated at least 400 people turned out to honor Reid. He said it was an honor to recognize the soldier and to support his family during the funeral.

He said Reid, whom he called a “very good example of what’s right in our country,” gave the ultimate sacrifice by serving in the military.

“They give us the freedoms we have,” he said. “Without them, we just wouldn’t be free.”

Exercising some of those freedoms Saturday was a small group from Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan.-based church that often protests soldiers’ funerals to express its view that U.S. deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are punishment for what it believes to be Americans’ immorality. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing First Amendment freedoms against a family’s right to grieve privately after a Pennsylvania man sued the church for picketing his son’s funeral in 2006.

“The Constitution guarantees that we have the right to express our religion, and this is one of the ways we express our religion,” said Paulette Phelps, a member of the church, as she stood with other church members about a block east of the funeral home.

The small group stood near Thiebaud Auditorium, surrounded by people with American flags and almost completely out of view of the funeral home. As the church began preaching, the counterprotesters sang the national anthem, and a loudspeaker across the street began playing patriotic and spiritual music.

As the funeral started, the Patriot Guard swarmed the funeral home, creating a large, silent barrier several rows thick around the building in which family members were paying their last respects to Reid.

For more of this story, pick up a copy of today’s Joplin Globe or register for our E-Edition here at joplinglobe.com.

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