More Than 100 Gather To Mourn Pa. Soldier

Death in Iraq War Brings Outpouring Of Warm Memories

Brynn Runyan, 1, sat amid more than 100 mourners, just feet away from the wooden coffin holding her father. She had been separated from him for much of her life by a war half a world away, and yesterday she was within a few feet of him as he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Army Cpl. Luke S. Runyan, 21, of Spring Grove, Pa., was killed Feb. 17 in Iraq's Diyala province when enemy forces attacked his dismounted patrol using small arms fire, the Department of Defense reported.

Yesterday, more than three dozen vehicles lined Bradley Drive, looping around onto Marshall Drive, surrounding nearly half of Section 60 of the cemetery. Mourners, a cold wind whipping at their clothes, followed Runyan's coffin as it was pulled from the silver hearse and carried to his gravesite.

Folded American flags were presented to Runyan's wife, Courtney, and his parents, Marc A. Runyan and Lynette M. Baker.

In an interview with the York Daily Record last month, Courtney Runyan described her husband as a lively, animated "male version" of herself. She said that he was a risk-taker who enjoyed surfing and riding his motorcycle and that he adored their daughter Brynn.

"I'm going to do my best raising her to know that he's the most amazing man I ever met in my life," she told the paper. "As far as I'm concerned, he's a true hero."

The two met on MySpace about three years ago, she said . On his MySpace page, Runyan wrote that he was not single "because my heart belongs to the lovely Courtney." Postings on the page described him as an "amazing man" and " a hell of a guy."

"The world loses a great soldier and a great friend," someone wrote.

April 9 would have been the couple's two-year anniversary, Courtney Runyan told the York Dispatch.

She said that she didn't want to get out of bed when she heard someone banging on her door at 6:30 a.m. one Sunday last month and that she knew what had happened as soon as she saw the two uniformed men.

"As soon as I got down there I just wanted to slam the door in their face and say it's not mine, it must be somebody else's," she told the Dispatch. "I guess it sounds kind of morbid, I just knew we wouldn't see the end of his deployment.

"I kind of always expected to get that visit from those men. I don't know how I knew it would happen."

Spc. Chad D. Groepper, 21, of Kingsley, Iowa, also was killed in the attack. Both men were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash.

Runyan enlisted at Harrisburg, Pa., and reported to training in September 2004, according to Fort Lewis officials. He and Groepper were assigned to the brigade's 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment in July 2005, and the brigade deployed to Iraq in April.

Runyan, who graduated from Spring Grove Area High School in 2004, had been awarded the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.