AUGUSTA – Before he died, platoon commander Michael Jones finished his job.
He brought his platoon back from Iraq.
For about 1,000 mourners Wednesday, including about half of the 500 members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion, his success was celebrated as they said goodbye.
“He was a dad to a lot of his troops,” said Capt. Dean Preston, who commands the battalion’s Alpha Company, Jones’ unit.
The friends rode the plane together that brought them back from a year’s deployment in Iraq, landing at Fort Drum, N.Y., on Feb. 23. The next day, Jones fell ill. He died in nearby Syracuse on March 3, having never returned home to Maine.
The sadness colored each moment of Jones’ hour-long memorial Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center.
The service began with three minutes of silence as an honor guard escorted about 30 family members up the center aisle of the main auditorium.
Two lines of soldiers followed, dressed again in their desert uniforms.
Mourners filled about half of the arena, leaving few empty chairs on the floor or the balcony.
Many people wore white buttons with the soldier’s photo and the words “SFC Michael Jones, Forever in our Hearts.”
Chaplain Andrew Gibson led the ceremony. Jones’ friend for 17 years, Gibson described his pride of having known the soldier for so long and asked the family to remember all he had accomplished in his too-short life.
Jones would have turned 44 on Friday.
He had three brothers and two sisters. In the small town of Unity, Michael and his wife, Lori, raised three children: Adam, Alissa and Amy. Then, Amy gave him his first grandchild, Kaylee.
In civilian life, Jones worked as a truck driver for NRF Distributors Inc., a flooring company based in Augusta. During the ceremony, one of its trucks was parked just outside the Civic Center. It was decorated with flags.
However, it was Jones’ role as a military leader that kept coming up during the service.
Preston talked of how the longtime soldier always listened to him and, when necessary, was a decisive decision-maker.
“He was always ready to make the tough decisions,” Preston said. “And he was always right.”
Like every other soldier, Jones had rejoiced to come home, and he was tired.
The responsibility of leading a platoon of 30 or so soldiers had been a burdensome task, Preston said.
“That wore upon him,” he said. “He was ready for it, though.”
The night he arrived at Fort Drum, Jones was fine, Preston said after the service. But the next day, he was sick.
“He thought he had food poisoning,” Preston said. “He worked until he couldn’t stand.”
The soldier was rushed to the hospital in Syracuse, where doctors discovered that he had suffered an intestinal blood clot. He went into emergency surgery. The next day, the Maine Army National Guard flew Lori to his bedside.
For Preston, Jones’ death cast a long shadow over the homecoming.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m back yet,” he said.
At the close of Wednesday’s ceremony, Jones received a posthumous Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit for his meritorious and exemplary service in Iraq.
A bugler from the Maine guard, Sgt. Scott Ludwig, played taps while an honor guard outside fired rifles in a 21-gun salute.
When it was over, Gibson shook hands and talked with people. For him, as with so many others, the memorial was a tough duty.
He had put aside his own feelings so he could lead the service that his friend deserved, he said.
And he needed to stay composed for the family, he said.
“You steel yourself,” the chaplain said. “You try to think of other things.”
Then, Gibson paused.
“I’ll cry on the way home,” he said.
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