In small town, an immense loss

Mashpee mourns for 2 servicemen

MASHPEE - An American flag rippled at half-staff yesterday in the center of the town's quiet Veterans Garden, where residents will gather tonight for a candlelight vigil in honor of two servicemen who died on consecutive days last week.

"It's going to probably be one of the biggest crowds I've ever seen," said Jake Ricker, 19, friend and high school classmate of both fallen soldiers. "Those two kids are connected to every single person in this town in some way."

Army Private First Class Paul E. Conlon, 21, a 2005 Mashpee High School graduate, was killed Friday in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan while riding in a Humvee, his family said. A day earlier, Marine Private First Class Daniel A. C. McGuire, 19, a 2007 Mashpee High School graduate, died while on a security patrol outside Fallujah, Iraq.

News of the deaths was still spreading yesterday through the Upper Cape community of about 14,000 residents, home to two or three graduates each year who opt for the armed services, said John J. Cahalane, chairman of the Mashpee Board of Selectmen. School leaders made plans for counseling, church congregations discussed ways to reach out to the families, and friends visited Internet networking sites to remember the fallen.

"There's been more than 4,000 deaths over there, and all of a sudden we've had two in a small town like ours," Cahalane said. "It's just incomprehensible."

Sidney Chase, veterans agent for the town, said about six Mashpee residents have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and half of them had been lost. In addition to McGuire and Conlon, Alicia A. Birchett, 29, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, died in August 2007 after she was pinned by a truck while changing a tire in Baghdad. Chase added that others, originally from Mashpee who moved away, may not be included in his counts.

Several Massachusetts communities similar in population to Mashpee - including Bedford, Pembroke, and Swampscott - have also buried more than one fallen soldier from the conflicts, but few have dealt with losses so close together.

As of Aug. 9 there had been 500 American military deaths in and around Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon, and as of Friday 4, 144 deaths in Iraq.

For the young, seemingly "bulletproof," the deaths served as a hard reminder of the fragility of life and the sacrifices of war, said Ted Theis, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5489 in Mashpee. And for veterans and the elderly, Theis said, the losses conjur up dormant memories of fallen friends and feelings of luck for having been spared.

"The older you get, the harder this stuff is to take," he said. "When you get over 60, you've enjoyed your life and the friends you served with didn't enjoy their life, and seeing kids losing theirs is double as difficult."

McGuire often participated in Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies, Theis said. For his capstone Boy Scout project, McGuire crafted several hand-engraved, wooden chests to house retired American flags - many faded, dirty, or torn.

The Rev. Thomas Crumb, McGuire's longtime pastor at Christ Chapel in Centerville, said his congregation shared words of sorrow and prayer at Mass yesterday morning. They wrote cards and e-mails to be sent to the family, Crumb said, and will deliver meals to their home for the next three or four weeks.

"Mashpee is the next town, and these towns are small, so there's obviously the heavy burden of grief and sorrow we all feel," he said. "We saw Dan grow up here, we loved him, and we guided him."

Groups for Conlon and McGuire have been set up on the popular social networking website Facebook.com, where friends have posted their favorite memories and words of consolation for the families.

Their messages described McGuire as a compassionate patriot, a fun-loving spirit who valued literature and who "got along with anyone he met." Conlon was characterized as a popular, creative student, who was fiercely loyal to his friends and family. He enjoyed writing poetry, and many remembered him for his mohawk hairstyles, studded belts, and wacky clothes.

Amanda Abbott, 21, of Barnstable, said she and Conlon began dating in ninth grade, and after losing contact for three years, reconnected through Facebook. She said they had made plans to move in together, get married, and adopt a dog.

Abbott said she last spoke with Conlon by telephone two hours before he died Friday. Just before he hung up the phone, she said, he told her: "Whenever you look up at the sky and feel the sun on your skin, it's the warmth of my arms around you. I love you kid." In one of the e-mails he sent her Wednesday, he wrote: "No war, no fight, no distance will ever come between us."

At McGuire's home yesterday, a sign reading "support our troops" was posted in front of an American flag waving at half-staff. Yellow and black ribbons were tied to several of the trees in the family's yard. McGuire's father, Mark, stood on his front lawn.

"We had to get up this morning because we had to go to church, because it's normal," Mark McGuire said. "But Thursday morning, 'normal' changed forever for us."

He said family members had still not decided if they would attend today's vigil, but that they had been in touch with the Conlon family, who is organizing the event.

Funeral arrangements for both servicemen were still pending.

Globe correspondents John M. Guilfoil and Mark P. Larocque contributed to this report.