Swampscott mourns a son

SWAMPSCOTT -- Hundreds of friends, neighbors, and veterans lined the streets here yesterday to mourn the town's first resident to die in combat since the Vietnam War, a car-loving former altar boy named Jared J. Raymond.

Under a fluttering American flag suspended between the ladders of two fire trucks, two chestnut horses pulled a black caisson bearing the remains of Raymond, a 20-year-old US Army specialist who was killed Sept. 19 when an improvised explosive device detonated near the tank he was driving in Iraq.

Dentists in blue scrubs, library workers, elderly people on the senior center porch, firefighters outside a station house, a boys' football team in blue jerseys -- all watched as Raymond's flag-draped casket rode past.

People wept, saluted, and waved American flags, as bagpipes played and the caisson proceeded from the church where Raymond was baptized two decades ago to the cemetery where he was buried yesterday.

``Let me just say publicly what everyone here feels: Jared Raymond is a hero," said the Rev. Robert Reed during a packed funeral Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church in Swampscott.

As mourners watched in silence, an Army officer presented Raymond's mother, Jaclyn, with several medals Raymond had been awarded, including a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

``I don't think any one of us here will forget this day as long as we live," Reed said.

An only child raised by his mother and grandmother, Raymond had wanted to join the military since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, his family said. He enlisted in the Army in July 2004, a month after graduating from Swampscott High School.

Raymond's uncle, James, recalled the moment several Army officers showed up at Raymond's house to take him to basic training 1,000 miles away, at Fort Knox, Ky. The young soldier blew a kiss to his mother and told the officers, ``Let's do it."

``Man, he was stoked," James Raymond said. ``He was going to be a tanker."

On New Year's Day 2006, he shipped out to Iraq to serve with the First Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, First Brigade, Fourth Infantry Division. A car buff who liked to cruise the seaside streets of Swampscott in his Pontiac Firebird, he drove an M1A2 Abrams tank in the dust and heat outside Baghdad. Twice a week, he called home. ``He never complained about a single bit of it," said Jarred Wiedenroth, Raymond's friend.

``I would always say to Jared: `We love you. Please be safe. Please pay attention,' " James Raymond said. ``He would promise he would and just asked to keep an eye on the family. `Just keep an eye on my mom. Tell everybody I love them.' "

Raymond's tank was struck in Balad, Iraq.

``As Jared and I always said to one another when he was over in Iraq and myself at college, `You got to do what you got to do,' " Wiedenroth said. ``Jared was doing what he had to, and we will always remember him for doing just that."

John Cropley, 84, a World War II veteran, watched the procession from outside the church. ``I like being here, not because of the occasion, but to see the town turn out like this," he said. ``It proves one thing: We're all Americans. Right or wrong, you've got to stay together."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.