IN 1884, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Civil War veteran and Supreme Court justice-to-be, gave perhaps the most famous Memorial Day speech. "To us who remain behind is left this day," he said as he summoned to mind his comrades from Massachusetts who had perished 20 years before. In the midst of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the memories are rawer, and the pain fresher, for those who knew the men and women of Massachusetts who have died this past year.
Staff Sergeant Robert R. Pirelli, once a hockey player at Franklin High School, was killed by small arms fire in Iraq. "He gave it everything he had on the ice," a teammate told the Globe. "But he did that with everything in his life."
Private First Class Kenneth J. Iwasinski of Belchertown was killed in a bomb explosion. His father said, "When he came home on leave you could see that he saw a lot of bad things, but he still walked proud."
Staff Sergeant Daniel A. Newsome also died in an explosion. As a teenager in Chicopee, he loved skateboards and fast cars. "He was looking forward to settling down with his family . . . to go to technical school for auto mechanics," his godfather said.
Private First Class Matthew A. Bean of Pembroke was killed while searching for three fellow servicemen. At his funeral, his brother recalled Matthew's advice: "You need to just grit your teeth and do it."
War is dangerous in ways that do not involve combat. Corporal Jeremy Paul Bouffard of Middlefield died in a helicopter crash. "He chose to serve out of a sense of honor and commitment to the ideals of our nation," his family said.
Staff Sergeant Joan J. Duran of Roxbury died in a noncombat accident. "He made you feel so motivated," a friend said. "Everything he did was perfect."
Specialist Christine M. Ndururi of Dracut died of an illness in Kuwait on the way to Iraq. Staff Sergeant Alicia A. Birchett, a Wampanoag from Mashpee, died in an accident in Baghdad. "The family, the town, the tribe, we are all hit pretty hard by it," said her uncle. "Alicia was a very loving person."
In a case still being investigated, Specialist Ciara M. Durkin of Quincy died in Afghanistan. "She was very vocal about her feelings. She was constantly telling us she loved us," said her sister.
Holmes put it best: "Every year - in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life - there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. But grief is not the end of all. . . Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death - of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring."
