JAMESTOWN, N.D. - Hundreds of people filled St. Paul's United Methodist Church here Monday to honor 21-year-old Paul Beyer, who was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 23.
Those attending the funeral included Beyer's uncle, Rodney Beyer, a retired Army veteran with 27 years of military service under his belt.
The elder Beyer said that after his nephew joined the Army last summer, he had a heart-to-heart talk with him about the dangers he faced in Iraq.
"Paul had a good understanding of what he had volunteered for," Rodney Beyer said.
"He understood also our purpose in being over there. He said once you look in the eyes of those people, it's very important that we're there."
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The picture of Paul Beyer painted Monday by his uncle and others was that of a fun-loving and easygoing young man who had just begun life with a new bride and a new career in the military.
Amanda Chadwick, who described herself as a friend of Beyer's since they were both 5 and in kindergarten together, said her friend believed in what he was doing.
"He was serving his country," she said. "He became a hero in our town, and we'll miss him."
While mourners filled the church, which can hold more than 500, a smaller number watched the funeral from the town's high school, where a closed-circuit television was set up.
Across the street from the church, about a half-dozen demonstrators from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., set up a protest.
The group, which has protested at other military funerals, believes American casualties in Iraq are the result of God turning his back on the country and its sins, said Charles Hockenbarger, one of the demonstrators.
Countering the protest was a group of 150 or so bikers waving U.S. flags and cheering when military personnel or dignitaries arrived at the church.
The bikers were there to honor the fallen soldier and to shield the funeral from those who might disrupt it, said Randy Lindborg, a ride captain with the North Dakota chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders.
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Inside the church, a slide show offered glimpses of Beyer's life.
The images flashed from a little boy wearing a jack-o-lantern costume on Halloween to a grown man wearing a tuxedo on his wedding day.
"You lived. You loved, and you laughed," Beyer's sister-in-law, Sherry Fieber-Beyer, said in a eulogy.
North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven also spoke during the service, quoting a former president.
"Ronald Reagan once said, 'We don't have to turn to our history books to find heroes.' And he was right."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Olson at (701) 241-5555
