more from the way he lived than from the horrific way he had to die."Kulongoski called Tucker, 25, who was kidnapped and killed by Iraqi insurgents last month, "the best Oregon had to give."
About 3,500 people gathered at the Hooker Creek Events Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds to honor the Madras soldier, who had been in Iraq since February. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., described courage as "not the absence of fear but the recognition of fear and the ability to move forward in spite of it." When it came to that test, he said, Tucker "passed in abundance."
Walden said he did not know Tucker, "but like most Oregonians - indeed, like all Americans - we owe him a debt of gratitude we will never be able to pay."
Beside the all-too-familiar sight of a flag-draped coffin, a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace," and a helmet sat atop an upstanding rifle - the familiar memorial to a fallen soldier - as a slide show depicted Tucker from infancy through his teenage years, high school graduation and induction into the military, detailing the life that was lost - his love of baseball and basketball, his mischievious nature and more.
His older sister, Tayva, said, "I can hear Tom telling me, 'Be strong. Don't stress out, and have fun.' "
She recalled a time when one of his high school classmates became a teenage mother, and her friends turned their backs on her. She said he was the first one to go to the hospital with a rose for her. "Tommy, before he left, he said, 'I will be one of the men in your life that'll never leave you, whether I come back or not,'" she recalled. "He said, 'I'll be here for you forever, no matter what.'"
"I love you lots," she told her departed brother. "I'm going to be proud of you for the rest of my life, and your legacy is going to live on."
The governor told the assembled mourners, "A young man whom only a year ago was working construction, playing piano and smiling his way into the hearts of everyone he met is suddenly a fallen American hero." And he recalled what Tucker had told his parents: "'I'm going to defend my country.' He stayed true to his word, just as he stayed true to his family."
The Rev. Lee McCloud of the New Hope Christian Center of Madras, which Tucker attended, recalled his last meetings with the soldier. "Tom was wrestling questions that are on all of our minds: What's life all about?" McCloud said. He said Tucker told him, "All I want to know is that all is OK."
After the service, a lengthy funeral procession traveled 30 miles north on Highway 97 to the Mount Jefferson Memorial Park in Madras, where more than 300 mourners looked on as Tucker was buried with full military honors, including posthumous presentation to his parents of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for meritorious service, followed by a Blackhawk helicopter flyover.
Tucker worked in landscaping, construction and other jobs before joining the military a year ago.
Brig. Gen. Gregg Martin of the 101st Airborne Division said Tucker "gave all a mortal can give. He belongs to history," quoting Gen. Douglas MacArthur. "Private First Class Thomas Lowell Tucker's heroism is our legacy that we will never let go."
The Oregon governor's office lists Tucker as the 63rd soldier from Oregon or with strong Oregon ties to die in Iraq.