Family awaits soldier's remains

Over a crackling phone line from Iraq on May 18, Dana Bean of Pembroke heard the voice of his son, Matthew, describe patrols through palm groves and door-to-door searches in a desperate mission to save three missing soldiers -- and then he heard him quickly sign off, saying: "I'm OK over here. I love you. I've got to go."

They were the last words Bean would hear his 22-year-old son speak.

The next day, Army Private First Class Matthew Bean of the 10th Mountain Division took up position on a rooftop as his unit searched for three of the division's own, including a soldier from Lawrence.

Then the sniper's shot hit him in the head.

Matthew died Thursday of massive head wounds. Yesterday his family was awaiting the return of his remains from Bethesda Naval Hospital.

"It makes me proud to know he was out there searching for them," said Dana Bean, a member of the local union of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. "I am thinking a lot about that family in Lawrence and what that must be like, to be waiting for word."

He was referring to Specialist Alex Jimenez, 25, who is one of three soldiers, members of the Fourth Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, N.Y., who were believed to have been abducted May 12 during an ambush south of Baghdad.

One of the missing soldiers was found dead May 23 -- Private First Class Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif. The soldier's family was reportedly told on the 23 d that it was Anzack.

Matthew Bean was awarded the Bronze Star during his service and a Purple Heart posthumously, his father said.

He had survived three roadside bomb attacks, according to letters he sent home to his family. His son was modest, Dana Bean said, and had underplayed his role in discovering one roadside bomb and saving members of his unit.

Dana Bean said he did not know his son had been awarded the Bronze Star for that action until military officials told him at Bethesda. He said that his son received extraordinary care at Bethesda and that the Army had been caring and honest with the family about his grave condition.

Over Memorial Day weekend, President Bush visited the hospital and passed by the bed where Matthew lay unconscious , stopping to have a few words with family members, Dana Bean said.

He and his wife, Cheryl, were by Matthew's bedside, as were his mother, Mary Brennan, and her husband, Sean Brennan. His fiancee, Sarah O'Neil, who attended Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston with him, was also at his bedside when he died.

Matthew Bean was remembered by his former guidance counselor and friend, Robert Laughlin, as a "deeply principled kid." A member of the high school soccer and wrestling team, he loved to hike in the woods and play guitar.

The family had been told by a team of doctors that his brain had stopped functioning and that his internal organs then began to fail. The family had chosen not to take extraordinary measures to resuscitate and to allow Matthew to die.

Matthew Bean's flag-draped coffin is expected to arrive in Pembroke as soon as tomorrow. Funeral preparations were unresolved last night for a service expected to be scheduled next week at Pembroke's North River Community Church, where the family have been members for the past 10 years.

"Because of our faith, we believe he is in God's hands now," said Dana Bean. "We trust we'll see him again."

Charles Sennott can be reached at sennott@globe.com.