Mourning a fallen soldier

Many who didn't know victim attend his funeral in Beverly

BEVERLY - Deb Sacco never met Army Specialist Stephen R. Fortunato. But she knows what it is like to have a son serving in wartime. Her son, Robert, is a 19-year-old Army private currently in Iraq. So yesterday she wore an Army sweatshirt, held a small American flag, and stood, waiting with strangers, on the sidewalk across from St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish.

All along Cabot Street, hundreds of townspeople - parents, children, soldiers in green, police officers and firefighters in blue, veterans in Navy caps - stood in rows, clutching American flags. When the beat of drums and the skirl of bagpipes filled the air, they watched as a white caisson, drawn by two chestnut horses, delivered Fortunato's flag-draped coffin to his funeral. Some held their hands on their hearts; Sacco fought back tears.

"We're all one family," she said. "My son e-mailed me this morning and said they were all thinking of this family."

Fortunato, 25, was the gunner in a Humvee on Oct. 14 in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb detonated, killing him, Specialist Cory J. Bertrand, 18, of Center, Texas, and Sergeant Preston R. Medley, 23, of Baker, Fla., according to the Department of Defense. The three were 90 percent complete with their mission that day of providing security at polling stations, Brigadier General Todd T. Semonite told the funeral Mass. Fortunato was the first service member from Beverly to be killed in action since the Vietnam War.

The funeral procession yesterday was a townwide tribute to Fortunato's service. Even those who never knew Fortunato and had no relatives in the military said they felt compelled to show their support. "I feel like any of the men and women that are over there, that we're a part of them and they're a part of us," said Nancy Grimmer, holding an American flag.

Looking at the street filled with mourners, Sacco said, "We all have busy lives but when this happens, you realize what it's really all about."

A few paces away, Susan Gillis, whose son, Scott, an Army sergeant, recently returned from Iraq, said Fortunato's funeral procession hit home. "You know what it's like to be his mother," she said.

Sacco agreed.

"My worst nightmare is happening here today," she said.

Fortunato was the son of a prominent Beverly family that includes a former mayor and school superintendent. A 2002 graduate of Beverly High School, he studied graphic arts at North Shore Community College before enlisting in the Army in 2005. His family has said he wanted to be in combat.

The Rev. David J. Barnes, pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea, opened his homily not by quoting Scripture but by reading aloud the first phrases of the Declaration of Independence. He said Fortunato served and died to protect those unalienable rights.

"Steve's sacrifice is also your sacrifice," he told the mourners, because they had lost a beloved husband, brother and friend. "All of us who are here today might learn from his example," he said.

Semonite presented Fortunato's family with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He said the commander and soldiers in Fortunato's unit considered him "the go-to guy" in their battalion. Last weekend, he said, the soldiers who had served alongside Fortunato stopped in Kunar Province and held a ceremony to remember Fortunato.

"Steve was a hero," Semonite said. "He wanted to be part of something bigger than himself."

Sacco said her son's unit in Iraq, touched by the death of a fellow service member from Massachusetts, had also honored Fortunato. "He said they knelt as a company and prayed together, heads bowed."

Fortunato was proud of his service. He explained his decision to serve in an Aug. 30 blog entry that his mother, Elizabeth Crawford, forwarded to the Globe.

"I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life," Fortunato wrote. He added: "I am a proud American. i [sic] believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however i want to, and believe me, i have seen what the alternative of that looks like."

Barnes recalled the touchstones of Fortunato's life, from his baptism in the church on an October morning 25 years ago, to his death on a roadside in Afghanistan.

"He did it for his comrades. He did it for his country. He did it for his family," Semonite said.

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