Sag Harbor Mourns A Marine
Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter was 19
(5/1/2008) It rained on Monday as Sag Harbor said a final goodbye to its own fallen warrior, its first since World War II. Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, killed on April 22 by a suicide bomber in Iraq, was buried at Oakland Cemetery after a funeral service at the Old Whalers Church.
He died a hero in Ramadi, saving 33 fellow marines from the bomber, who had driven into their checkpoint.
The Rev. Steven E. Howarth, pastor of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church, officiated at the service. Speaking of Mr. Haerter’s dedication to the Marine Corps, the reverend said that when Corporal Haerter learned of his deployment, he said, “It’s what marines do.”
Mr. Howarth said the corporal’s commanding officer had highly commended his bravery. Corporal Haerter pushed another marine out of harm’s way and shot and killed the driver, who had ignored warning shots.
When the 2,000 pounds of explosives on the truck detonated, Corporal Haerter was killed instantly. Lance Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, 21, of Burkesville, Va., who had fired shots as well, died moments later.
The young men were also credited with protecting the lives of 21 Iraqi police officers who were inside the compound with the 33 marines. Both were from the Second Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. They had been deployed less than a month.
The parents of the marine whom Corporal Haerter pushed to safety traveled to Sag Harbor from Massachusetts on Saturday to see his parents, Christian Haerter and JoAnn Lyles. Mr. Howarth said they told Corporal Haerter’s parents that Corporal Haerter, their only child, had saved their own son’s life.
“Jordan might have said, ‘It’s what marines do,’ ” Mr. Howarth said.
When he was very young, Corporal Haerter had asked his mother to make him military-inspired costumes for Halloween. Once, when she was putting together a Revolutionary-era uniform, he went to the library to research the buttons. “Historical accuracy was important,” the reverend said.
While Mr. Howarth had never met the man he eulogized, he painted a picture using the stories and memories of family and friends. He described Corporal Haerter as a “levelheaded” young man, saying, “His feet were solidly on the ground, although not always literally.”
The corporal flew planes before he could legally drive a car to his lessons at East Hampton Airport, Mr. Howarth said. He took his first solo flight without telling his parents. He was, however, happy to boast about it afterward, showing off the shirttail his flight instructor had cut out. (Traditionally, a patch is cut from a pilot’s shirt on the first solo flight.)
Friends of Corporal Haerter spoke at the funeral service about the strength of his character. Using an old boat he’d acquired, he once tried to start a business, Breakfast on the Bay, that served bagels to boaters moored in Sag Harbor Cove. When health regulations put a stop to that, he pressed on and became a delivery boy, driving around in a mud-spattered Toyota 4Runner to drop off freshly dry-cleaned clothes.
Fellow students from the Pierson High School class of 2006, as well as younger and older friends, sang two folk songs from the church balcony: “My Land Is a Good Land,” a patriotic anthem by Eric Anderson, and “Swimming to the Other Side” by Pat Humphries.
The young men and women wiped away tears as they sang, their voices strong, the same words in which Jordan Haerter had once joined them during the Sag Harbor Elementary School’s morning program.
Nancy Remkus, an elementary music teacher and the morning program’s director, led the chorus and played guitar. She said the songs were important not only to the young man’s former classmates but also to his mother, who had requested that they sing.
“I was so impressed by their presence and just their ability to show up,” Ms. Remkus said of her former students. She said 25 or more had come to her house on Sunday night after the wake to choose songs and to practice.
When Corporal Haerter graduated, he told his parents, “I’m done with school,” Mr. Howarth said. “He was ready for a different challenge” and joined the Marines because they were the toughest, the reverend said. His parents knew not to try to talk him out of his decision. “Apparently he could be a bit stubborn,” Mr. Howarth said.
Mr. Haerter had written a letter to his son to read when he arrived in Iraq. With it Mr. Haerter included laminated pictures of the people who loved his son to take along — “These are the people you are fighting for,” he wrote.
One of Mr. Haerter’s friends, Bob McMahon, read the letter aloud at the funeral. “You’ve turned into the man I always dreamed you would be when you were a child,” the father had said. He instructed his son to be “razor-sharp and always on your game . . . suspicious of everyone and everything.”
But he also reminded his son that “compassion, humanity, and decency are not weaknesses in the human character, but strengths.”
Ms. Lyles received a letter from her son the day before he was killed. Mr. Howarth read it aloud.
“I miss Nicole, you, and Dad, and home,” the corporal had written, referring to his girlfriend, Nicole Jonat. “Try not to worry too much. We are well trained. . . . We are going to do an outstanding job over here, and then come home.”
“True to his word, he did an outstanding job,” Mr. Howarth said. “We all salute him and will cherish his memory as a true American hero.”
Long Island also saluted the corporal. Sag Harbor Village, Suffolk County, and state police escorted the corporal’s casket from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to Sag Harbor on Saturday. Mourners lined streets and highways from the Verrazzano Bridge to Sunrise Highway. At the Nassau-Suffolk County border, police from both county departments lined up in salute.
An American flag was draped from two Southampton Fire Department ladder trucks at the entrance to Southampton from Sunrise Highway. The hearse and motorcade procession, including the corporal’s parents, passed underneath it on their way east.
As the motorcade proceeded down Sag Harbor’s Main Street, hundreds of people stood in silence, spilling into the street. Many held flags. Veterans of the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf Wars saluted. Nearby, on Hampton Street, marines saluted the corporal as his casket was carried into the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home.
His family received hundreds of visitors at the funeral home from 2 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, taking an hour break at one point. Six Sag Harbor Village police officers stood at the door.
Inside, a laptop computer played a photographic tribute to Corporal Haerter. The shots ranged from humorous to serious, including one of the corporal and his grandmother at the mouth of giant shark statue and another in his blue dress uniform. A small reprint of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was positioned next to the computer.
His parents stood nearby and a marine stared straight ahead as mourners knelt and prayed in front of the coffin.
Hundreds stood crying under umbrellas at Oakland Cemetery during the military send-off: “Taps,” a 21-gun salute, and a flag-folding ceremony. When a marine presented the flag to Corporal Haerter’s mother, she sobbed, pressed it to her chest, and looked into the other woman’s eyes.