 |
In Memoriam |
 |
|
In Memoriam |
|
LCpl. Steven Rintamaki, U.S.M.C (KIA)
'Pride, prayers' after more Iraq fatalities
It was a day of pride and prayers, of tears and taps, when the war in Iraq came home to the Puget Sound region yesterday.
In Seattle, Marine Lance Cpl. Steven Arnold Rintamaki's two mothers -- his adoptive and birth moms -- and his birth father each received a tricorn-folded American flag as they came together to bury him at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery.
At Fort Lewis near Tacoma, nearly 70 men and women in uniform gathered solemnly at Soldiers' Chapel to honor the memory of Army Pfc. Joseph Adam Harris, a member of the post's Stryker Combat Team brigade that has been in Iraq since November.
Both men, each 21 years old, were among five members of the armed forces with ties to Washington state who were killed in Iraq in September. The state's contribution to the nation's casualty list of more than 1,000 military deaths in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 grew to 51.
Rintamaki, of Lynnwood, was killed in combat in al Anbar province Sept. 16. He had met his birth mother and father, and their extended families, only in the weeks before he shipped out for Iraq three months ago.
"He would have been out and home in December, his enlistment up," said Myra Rintamaki, who adopted him when he was 8 months old.
But Steven Rintamaki had chosen to extend his enlistment and serve with his fellow Marines in Iraq rather than remain stateside earlier this year.
Yesterday, mourners filled University Presbyterian Church for Rintamaki's 1 p.m. memorial service. More than 200 people made the late-afternoon trip to the cemetery to see him laid to rest. A Marine honor guard escorted his casket. Seven Marines fired three times for a 21-gun salute. Pastor Allan Belton urged those mourning Rintamaki's loss to honor his aspirations by trying to make their own differences in life.
Taps was sounded. Three flags were folded. Myra Rintamaki received one. Stacie Swinson of Tacoma, Rintamaki's birth mom, another. And Tim Tipps of Seattle, his biological father, the third.
"He died doing his best," Tipps said afterward. "Not a lot can say that."
"He felt like my friend, more than a son," added Tipps, who had met Rintamaki earlier this year.
Rintamaki's new extended family, who excitedly embraced him when he showed up in their lives, yesterday wore yellow ribbons, buttons with his Marine Corps photo and copies of his dog tags. Tipps also had gold copies of Rintamaki's dog tags placed in his son's coffin.
"I won't get to know him more now," Tipps said.
Myra Rintamaki, a member of the University of Washington's scholarship committee, created a scholarship in her son's name through the U.S. Marine Corps Foundation.
"It is a way to making something positive out of a negative from the loss of a young life just realizing self-actualization," she said.
"I did not want the cliche 'he didn't die in vain' to apply to his life, but to create a positive for the future in his name, for (the sons and daughters) of other families of Marines who protect us," Myra Rintamaki added.
The families' goals are to achieve $25,000 for a perpetual memorial scholarship in Steven's name.
At Fort Lewis, meanwhile, Harris' fellow soldiers held a half-hour memorial service in his memory. Harris' platoon leader, Lt. Anthony Gore, paid a "commander's tribute" to the fallen soldier, while in Harris' hometown, Abilene, Texas, his family put together funeral plans.
A member of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Harris was shot by a sniper in Mosul on Sept. 22 while on patrol. He had celebrated his 21st birthday the previous Saturday.
"You never think it's going to happen to you," Harris' mother, Denise Bush, told the Abilene Reporter News, though hers is a military family. She is the secretary for the commander of Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene. Her husband, Steven, Harris' stepdad, is food superintendent to the base's 7th Services Squadron.
Harris died a day after a third Fort Lewis soldier, Pfc. Nathan E. Stahl, 20, of Highland, Ind., was killed in Iraq. A member of Fort Lewis' special operations 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Stahl died when a bomb hit the vehicle in which he was riding
Stahl's mother, Towina Nightingale, told the Northwest Indiana Times she had reared her son as a single mom during some tough times, and planned to surprise her boy, who never had his own bedroom while growing up, with a bedroom of his own when he returned from Iraq.
Stahl had joined the Civil Air Patrol as a teenager and was determined to make something of himself. He always wanted to be a soldier, to make a difference, but in a quiet way, his stepfather, Rodney Nightingale, said. Stahl joined the Army out of high school in June 2003.
Nightingale said her son had his heart set on marrying a girl he'd met while working at a restaurant after high school, to whom he had given a "promise" ring before leaving for Iraq. "He had a lot of girls that loved him, but she stole his heart," Nightingale told the hometown paper.
"For me, he was my strength," she said. "He was so loving no matter whether you were perfect or not."
Also killed last month were Army Sgt. Jacob H. Demand, 29, of Palouse, in Eastern Washington, and 38-year-old Marine Maj. Kevin Shea, formerly of Seattle and a 1984 graduate of Bishop O'Deah High School.
Demand was killed in combat west of Mosul; Shea, while fending off an attack by insurgents in al Anbar province. Demand, a father of three, belonged to the Stryker brigade, which takes its name from its fast, high-tech infantry vehicles. Shea, a member of the 1st Marine Division, died on his birthday, leaving behind a wife and two children.
As the sun waned last night, Rintamaki's family and friends gathered at a reception at Lake Ballinger to begin to remove the stresses of worry at having a loved one at war, and of last week's events.
At Fort Lewis, the weight shifted to others as 400 Fort Lewis Stryker brigade soldiers took off from McChord Air Force Base for Iraq. The unit, the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Division, is the vanguard of 4,000 replacements for Stryker soldiers who have been there almost a year.
The Steven A. Rintamaki family hopes to raise $25,000 for a perpetual memorial scholarship fund in his name for Marine Corps families. Donations can be made at any Key Bank to the "Cpl. Steven A. Rintamaki Memorial Fund." Or they can be mailed to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 3008, Princeton, NJ 98543. Information about the foundation and how to donate is available online at www.Marine-scholars.org.