Soldier's Burial Wish Is Fulfilled

Maryland Guardsman Had Helped Train Afghan Soldiers

Staff Sgt. Collin J. Bowen was two weeks away from returning home to Maryland. He'd gone to Afghanistan at his own request, and even though he had completed his last mission, he volunteered for another. On his way back, just six miles from base, his vehicle was hit by a makeshift bomb in Afghanistan's Khost province.

That was Jan. 2. Bowen held on for more than two months, undergoing 13 surgeries and traveling from Afghanistan to a military hospital in Texas. He died March 14 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

"He felt like it was his calling to train other soldiers," Bowen's brother Shelby told The Washington Post this month. "He really believed in what the U.S. was doing there, and he really enjoyed it."

Yesterday, hundreds of family members and friends gathered to pay tribute to Bowen, as his wish to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery was fulfilled.

On a Web site devoted to honoring Bowen, his wife, Ursula, describes how Bowen had expressed his desire to be buried at Arlington during several Memorial Day visits there. She told him that if he died first, she would make sure that he was buried there.

"Then he said, well it's not that easy, you have to be a war hero to even be considered, so it's unlikely for that to happen," she wrote. "Who would have known that his wishes would come true much earlier than anyone could have guessed."

The Web site tracked Bowen's status from his injury through his burial.

On Jan. 18, his 38th birthday, his aunt Trish and his wife visited him and sang "Happy Birthday." When they entered the room, he followed them with his eyes and blinked twice to acknowledge them. It was the first time they had seen movement and response from his eyes.

In a letter from November provided to the site by his brother Justin, Bowen seemed in great spirits as he shared some good-natured jokes with Shelby and Justin, his younger brothers.

"I'm doing fine," Bowen also wrote. "I've started counting down the days. I should start moving to get out of here shortly after Christmas and I hope to be home by the end of January."

Yesterday, mourners gathered at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hyattsville for a service before the burial. Ursula Bowen helped their 3-year-old daughter, Gabriela, out of the car and into her coat for the burial service. Bowen's wife and parents, Michael Bowen and Carolyn Smith, were presented with folded flags. Bowen also had two daughters, Erin, 13, and Katelyn, 10, from a previous marriage.

Bowen was the 476th service member killed in Afghanistan or Iraq to be buried at Arlington, cemetery officials said.

Shelby Bowen said his brother's work in Afghanistan involved training members of the Afghan army. During his 14 years of military service, he received several honors, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Army Commendation Medal.

Bowen was a member of the 1st Battalion, 175th Infantry Regiment, Maryland Army National Guard based in Towson, Md., but was assigned to the Afghanistan National Army Embedded Training Team, Maj. Gen. Bruce F. Tuxill, adjutant general of Maryland, said in a statement.

Bowen was from Marion, Ind., and had lived in Maryland, mostly in the Baltimore area, for two decades. In 2005, he graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a degree in computer science.