STACYVILLE (AP) – As U.S. and Maine flags were lowered to half-staff across the state, hundreds of people attended a service Saturday for a 21-year-old soldier who was killed by a bomb in Iraq.
The memorial was held for Army Spc. Dustin James Harris, who was killed April 6 while on patrol 150 miles north of Baghdad.
Harris grew up in the northern Penobscot County town of Patten and graduated from Katahdin High School in Stacyville in 2002. He was a member of the 172nd Brigade Support Battalion of Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
Saturday’s public event took place at Katahdin Elementary School and was to be followed by a private family burial in Patten.
A threatened demonstration by a fringe church group failed to materialize.
Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland said authorities monitoring the service reported no problems.
“There were absolutely no incidents,” McCausland said.
Two days earlier, Maine Army National Guard troops from the 152nd Maintenance Company arrived at the Augusta Armory on their way home after a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq.
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