Honoring a fallen hero

[Stoner]

Here in my hometown of Bradford, Pennsylvania, a hero was laid to rest yesterday on a summer day so pleasant it didn?t seem appropriate for such a sad occasion. Our own Thomas Maholic was killed in combat in Afghanistan, in an almost forgotten war, on June 24. The master sergeant, who in his military career was a Special Forces soldier, medic and instructor, was 38 years old. He left behind a wife and a small child and many family and friends.

 

When the news came, this small town best known for Zippo lighters and sub-zero temperatures was understandably saddened. But sadness turned to outrage when we learned we were about to be visited by those ?religious? wack jobs from Kansas who protest at military funerals, holding up signs that say ?God loves dead soldiers? and ?You are going to Hell? and claiming that He is punishing this country for supporting homosexual rights by killing its soldiers.

 

Yesterday, however, outrage was gracefully transformed into resolve, and resolve forcefully into action. With a massive assist from the Patriot Guard -- a national network of men and women who ride their motorcycles to military funerals and shield the families from the protestors by holding up large American flags -- Bradford turned out in droves, determined to overshadow the noise and the idiocy with the stark contrast of quiet and dignity.

 

The working class town set in a valley below the Allegheny Mountains churned out its rich and its poor, its old men, many of whom are veterans, and its young punks, its war supporters and its pacifists, its straight people and its gays, its Christians and its non believers, its liberals and its conservatives and many who would never know the difference between the two. By the hundreds they joined the riders to line the street that passes the hilly cemetery and leads to the Catholic middle school where the funeral was being held. For hundreds of yards they stood sentinel, their line ending at a canopy that led inside the little gym where family and friends of this American hero would say goodbye.

 

At the other end of the street, fittingly at the bottom of a hill, the protestors were cattled into a cordoned-off area and surrounded by police who protected their safety as nobly as Master Sergeant Maholic had protected their very right to assemble and protest, as ludicrous and shameful as this protest was. A spokesman for the family said the group?s right to protest was what Master Sergeant Maholic had sacrificed his life for. The irony was missed by no one. The protestors? first act was to place an American flag on the ground and stand upon it. At the sight, a passing veteran of World War II wept openly but trudged on, saying nothing. Others spoke for him, loudly and angily. While one flag was being desecrated, hundreds more were flying with pride, from the small hand-held ones to the giants held aloft by the Patriot Guard, who true to mission put their bodies between the families and the almost unbelievable obscenity nearby the way a Secret Service agent puts his body in front of a bullet intended for the president.

 

In an apparent show of respect, the protestors left as the funeral began, but the show was later revealed to be completely uncaring and entirely unintentional -- they merely had another funeral to attend. Master Sergeant Thomas Maholic's funeral ended with a fly-over of three Black Hawk helicopters. As the middle copter peeled up and away to create the missing-man formation, the vibration of engines tightened chests that were already being squeezed by sadness and passion and pride. The American flag was presented to Master Sergeant Maholic's wife and his mother. A 21-gun salute was offered. And then everyone went home. Not a drop of blood fell, only tears staining the ground.

 

In 1900, Bradford, like Buffalo, was a burgeoning place of importance in the world. While Buffalo was hosting a Worlds Fair, ushering in an era of electrification and growing by leaps and bounds, Bradford was a booming oil town said to have more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world, a cosmopolitan place in the middle of the woods with mansions rising as fast as the oil derricks. By the turn of the next century, both places were in apparent decline, steel and oil having betrayed them, half their population having left for warmer climes and better jobs. While there are signs both places are engineering modest comebacks, most residents who remain will tell you their best days are behind them.

 

Today, however, most of those who stood on that hillside would tell you that Bradford?s best day was not on the occasion of the discovery of oil. It was on a day it rediscovered its love of American heroes and the flag they live, and die, to protect. That it took Master Sergeant Maholic's death for it to happen is heart-wrenching. It may have been his greatest gift of all.

[Corp000085]

RIP Tom... I'm sure that if he had half the sense of humor that most of us posess, he's cracking some nasty homoerotic jokes towards those disgraceful bible thumpers right now.

 

3 of my neighbors have had tours in afghanistan in the past year. I've heard some stuff that i wouldn't wish upon anyone. War is hell, and he did die for a cause. Again, RIP Tom.

[BuffalOhio]

Go in peace, Brother. I honor your sacrifice.

[Bmwolf21]

Great story, PA - thanks for sharing. Guys like Tom, the Patriot Guard and all those in and around Bradford, PA who came out to honor Tom's memory and drown out those idiot protestors - they all sympbolize everything that is right with our country, and make me proud to be part of this great nation.

 

Master Sgt. Thomas Maholic - RIP, and thanks for all you did to keep America safe.

[X. Benedict]

I never thought I would ever get weepy about Bradford. ;) nice thoughts.