Guest Column: Coming Together for the Family of a Fallen Soldier

By Kevin Ferris
Inquirer Columnist
August 1, 2010

Photo by Sean Carpenter

It was tough keeping a dry eye during the memorial service for Sgt. Louis Robert Fastuca at SS. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in East Goshen. It was even tougher afterward, while driving to the cemetery.

Louis, 24, was killed in an IED blast July 5 in Afghanistan. He was a member of the First Battalion, 503d Infantry Regiment, 173d Airborne Brigade Combat Team, and had been in Afghanistan since December. He had been home on leave just weeks before.

Visitation on July 21 began at 10 a.m., 21/2 hours ahead of the scheduled Mass, and had run for six hours the day before. Still people were waiting to offer condolences to the family when it was time for the service to start.

Those who stood quietly in line walked by several poster boards full of photos of the most important things in Louis' all-too-brief life. There was the skinny kid with the huge, dazzling smile. Posing with his parents, Robert and Monette. More with his younger brothers, Joseph and Anthony. And relatives galore - his dad is one of 10 kids and his mom one of six. There was Louis playing ice hockey. At the piano. Horsing around at Ocean City. Graduating from Malvern Prep, Class of 2004. And before you knew it, there was a tall, strapping young man in uniform. And always, always, that smile.

The citations for his Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and other decorations and awards, were at the front of the church, where the line turned for mourners to file past the open casket, just below the church altar.

SS. Peter and Paul seats about 800, and latecomers struggled to find a pew to squeeze into.

In his homily, the Rev. James R. Flynn, O.S.A., head of Malvern Prep, remembered a shy, almost timid Louis, who sometimes had trouble finding his niche. The family had moved to Chester County when Louis was in middle school, and he transferred to Malvern in the 10th grade. But Louis didn't make excuses. He pushed himself to become stronger and more self-confident, through music and sports - even taking up boxing.

Long before he put on a uniform, he was serving others. When the mother of Ed Liga, Malvern's choral teacher, died, Louis composed a song in her honor, "Heartfelt Goodbyes." Liga returned the favor, playing it at Louis' Mass.

That song is a good example of the community helping the Fastucas. The family wanted it played at Louis' funeral Mass, but he had neither recorded it nor put it in writing. Someone remembered it from graduation, and a VHS recording of the event was found. The family couldn't play the tape, but Liga was able to re-create the song from it. Then someone else got a DVD of the graduation to the family.

There were many such acts of support and generosity. Friends cleaned the Fastucas' home while they were at Dover Air Force Base for the arrival of Louis' body. A banner was printed and hung in the family's East Goshen neighborhood, and then filled with messages of love and support. Soldiers of the 173d traveled from Italy and Afghanistan to be with the family. Members of the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment came up from Virginia to render military honors for Louis, who had once served with the Old Guard.

And then there was the extraordinary kindness of strangers en route to St. Agnes Cemetery. The day before the service, members of the pro-troops group Warriors Watch visited homes and businesses along Boot Road and Phoenixville Pike, asking people to come out and show their respect for Louis and their support for his family.

They did just that.

Hundreds of people stood along the road for hours in the scorching heat, by housing developments and shopping centers. Some waved small, handheld flags. Others had 3-by-5-foot flags. Some stood with hand or hat over their hearts. Others were at attention, saluting - and they stayed that way through the miles-long procession of about 200 vehicles. One kid held a homemade sign that said, "Thank you Sgt. Fastuca." Other children just stood or sat in respectful silence, perhaps not quite sure what to make of it all.

"I was moved to tears," said Father Flynn, who rode to the cemetery with West Chester funeral director Joseph J. DellaVecchia III and with other priests. "We just couldn't talk."

Local fire companies, EMT units, and police were also out in force. Near the church, it was the Goshen and West Whiteland Fire Companies, with a 24-by-12-foot flag draped from a truck ladder extending 40 feet in the air. At the cemetery entrance, two trucks from Goshen and West Chester's Fame Fire Company used their ladders to form a 60-foot arch, a flag dangling in between.

"It was so touching," Monette Fastuca said a week after the service, and that day's unexpected tributes summed up much of what the family had experienced since July 5. "To see everyone just come out and support us. . . . It's overwhelming in a wonderful way. It's like God's work."

Work that no doubt had Louis, somewhere, breaking out that huge, dazzling smile.

Originally published in The Philadelphia Inquirer