Airman, Marine Mourned at Arlington

Admirers Recall Their Commitment

A Marine Corps honor guard places the coffin of Sgt. Justin Walsh at his grave site at Arlington National Cemetery. (Photos By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

Airman 1st Class LeeBernard Chavis and Marine Sgt. Justin Walsh weren't newcomers to Iraq. Both were serving repeat tours of duty when they were struck down this month in separate incidents.

Yesterday, the young men were interred during ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery.

Chavis, 21, whose family moved from the District to Hampton, Va., when he was 6, joined the Air Force two years ago. He was on his second tour in Iraq when he was shot and killed by a sniper Oct. 14, while on duty as a turret gunner in Baghdad. Chavis was assigned to the 824th Security Forces Squadron, based at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. He was his unit's first combat casualty in Iraq.

Family members said Chavis expected to return home in January before being deployed elsewhere. His brother, Michael Chavis, said he planned to become a police officer. Members of his squadron said he talked about perhaps joining the FBI, CIA or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Chavis's unit was attached to the 372nd Military Police Battalion, which trains Iraqi police officers in western Baghdad. On trips through the city streets, he was lead gunner, manning a .50-caliber machine gun. He was responsible for clearing a path for the rest of his team.

Yesterday, dozens of men and women from the Air Force gathered with Chavis's family and friends at Arlington, where blustery winds blew leaves across the field of headstones.

"I always knew Lee was a take-charge kind of person," said Kevin Davis, assistant principal at Phoebus High School in Hampton, which Chavis graduated from in 2003.

"He was assertive in what he believed in," Davis said. "He always stuck to his guns. At his funeral service in Hampton [on Monday], people were saying Lee was a hero and a warrior. I could see those traits in him. He was a person who truly gave his life for his country, who gave it for what he believed in."

Walsh's family and friends traveled from his home town of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to attend his memorial.

Walsh, 24, a 2001 graduate of Cuyahoga Falls High School, was a gifted athlete -- a varsity wrestler and football player who belonged to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes -- and an accomplished student who was a member of the National Honor Society.

Teachers said he could have taken his choice of colleges. Instead, he chose to join the Marines, becoming an explosive ordnance disposal technician with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He was serving his third tour of Iraq when he was killed.

Walsh was trying to defuse one roadside bomb in Anbar province Oct. 5, when he was wounded by another. He died about a week later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

"He could have gone to any school he wanted," said Greg Roth, an Advanced Placement history teacher who knew Walsh from his classes and had advised him on the school's Student Council. He said Walsh naturally took on leadership roles. The Marines, he said, was a lifelong aspiration for Walsh

"From the time I met this kid as a freshman, that's what he talked about," Roth said. "He always talked positively about serving his country. He took on big responsibilities and was very duty-oriented."

Last week, thousands of people lined the streets of Cuyahoga Falls, about 40 miles south of Cleveland, as Walsh's funeral procession drove past.

Marine Staff Sgt. Thomas Kirk, a friend from New York, spoke during Walsh's home town memorial service and talked about the work that Walsh did in Iraq disarming bombs.

"There are many thousands of Marines, sailors and soldiers who are walking around because of the work Justin did,'' Kirk said, as reported in the Akron Beacon Journal. "Today is the last day I will be sad. From now on, I will only be happy to have known him" and for the "impact he had on my life."