Cpl. Dean P. Pratt, U.S.M.C (KIA)

A corporal's farewell:
Hundreds pay final respects to Stevi's fallen hero

By ROD DANIEL Staff Reporter

More than 500 people converged on American Legion Post 94 Thursday to pay their respects to Marine Cpl. Dean Pratt of Stevensville who died in an explosion in Iraq on August 2.

With Old Glory flying at half staff, veterans from every American war since World War II joined friends and family of the fallen hero as Pastor Jim Carlson of Lone Rock Bible Church officiated the ceremony.

"A Marine has fallen; a son and brother has been taken," Carlson said as a firing squad from Bravo Company's fourth reconnaissance battalion out of Billings waited in the wings. "Parents aren't supposed to bury their children. This is a sad day."

Cpl. Pratt's cousins, Helen and Erin Van Stone, emerged from the grieving family that's been huddled together since learning of Pratt's death to sing the national anthem a capella. For many in the audience, the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" held a heightened meaning.

Carlson recounted the sobering facts of how Pratt, who volunteered for the Marines on September 11, 2000, perished last week, just five days before his 23rd birthday.

The week Carlson spent talking with Pratt's family, he said, gave him a glimpse into Pratt's fun-loving, sometimes mischievous personality.

"Dean spent his childhood in the Three Mile area on the Illinois bench," Carlson said. "He loved sports and played soccer and baseball. He was a Little League All Star. His well-developed sense of humor left his family wondering whether the Marines were ready for him."

Pratt, Carlson said, had an aversion to tying his shoes. "The Marines cured him of that," he said.

"He was extremely proud of being a U.S. Marine and believed very strongly in what he was doing in Iraq."

On Monday, Stevensville High School principal Jim Notaro recalled when Pratt came back to the high school last year before being deployed to Iraq.

"He came in uniform and talked to some of our students before he went overseas," Notaro said. "He was proud of what he was doing. I think he wanted to come back and show us that he was on track. He thanked me as a principal that he got a good education."

Notaro smiled as he recalled Pratt in high school and said the Marines brought about a change for the better in the young man.

"I'd stop short in saying that he was a trouble maker," Notaro said, "but let's just say he wasn't one of our model students."

"But he had changed. You could see it in the way he carried himself, and you could here it in his voice. He said 'yes sir' and 'no sir.'"

Debbie Stokes, whose son, Jason, is currently serving in Iraq and was one of Pratt's closest friends, spoke at the funeral and told about watching a close-knit group of teenage boys grow up. When they didn't come home at night, Stokes said, the parents had a late-night phone tree they would employ to search the back roads. Over the years, she said, the parents and families of the boys became close friends.

"With the loss of one of our own boys," Stokes said, "our bond has only grown stronger."

Stokes said Pratt and her son enlisted in the Marines together on the same day, and over the last three years she's kept in close contact with both men.

"Dean stopped by my house the last time he was home," she said, "just to say good bye."

Carlson recounted a story told to him by Pratt's family in which Pratt, as a young high school student, allegedly "parked his car in ... the Bitterroot River."

"He was on a first-name basis with the highway patrol," he said. "And he referred to the river incident as a 'fender bender.'"

After Pratt's sister-in-law, Lisa Pratt, sang "God Bless the USA," and the seven-member Marine firing squad fired three volleys, six Marines carried Pratt's wooden casket into the awaiting hearse as the hero's family walked somberly into the Legion Hall. About that time, a military helicopter flew over from the west.

During the reception that followed, scores of Pratt's friends hugged and consoled each other and shared stories about a younger Dean Pratt.

Sandy Buss from Lolo, who said she's known Pratt and his older brother D.J. since they were born, recalled when the boys were about 5 and 7 respectively and were playing in their long dirt driveway after a rain.

"I saw them out there and I told them it was OK to play in the mud puddle," Buss recalled. "Later they came in the house caked in mud from head to toe. After their mom finally stopped screaming they said 'Sandy said it was OK!'"

Wearing his Marine dress uniform, Cpl. Justin Bradley attended his former next-door neighbor's funeral while home on leave from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. A graduate of Stevensville High School, Bradley said he was home last week when he received word that his friend had been killed.

"The last time I talked to him was about a year ago," he said. "He was a class ahead of me in school, and he's the one who talked me into joining the military."

Bradley said joining the Marines was a good experience for both of them.

"We were loose cannons," he said, "and the Marines really straightened us out."

Two members of Pratt's battalion attended the service. Staff Sgt. Garriman Woods and Cpl. Melvin Dobberteen arrived Wednesday and met with Pratt's family; Friday they will travel to Yakima, Wash., for another fellow Marine's funeral.

On crutches after being hit in the foot during a mortar attack in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Woods is currently stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Cpl. Dobberteen said he knew Pratt personally and had planned to someday come to Montana to visit his friend.

"Me and Pratt used to talk about coming here and going fishing," he said.

Amid the mostly red and white flowers adorning the make-shift stage that served as a backdrop for the outdoor service were some personal items belonging to Cpl. Pratt - a stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear, a pair of sunglasses, a Camel filter cigarette and a small U.S. Marine Corps flag, sent from his company in Iraq and signed by four members of his unit.