Body of Soldier Comes Home
By Nick Lucchesi, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
Jun. 10–BETHALTO — A U.S. soldier came home Saturday when a Falcon-20 jet carrying his body landed at 5:55 p.m. on runway 2-19 at St. Louis Regional Airport.
U.S. Army Cpl. Jeremiah David “Jeremy” Costello, 22, a truck driver, was killed June 2 in Iraq by a roadside bomb. He was a member of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 5th Battalion, 82nd Artillery.
On Saturday, a crowd of more than 200 that included family members, police, military personnel, war veterans and supporters gathered on the tarmac at the airport to receive his body.
The private jet carrying him departed from an Air Force base in Dover, Del., earlier in the day, after a line of thunderstorms along the East Coast delayed the departure for several days, said the airport’s operations manager, Steve Bell.
As the jet steered its way closer to the crowd, more than 50 people holding large American flags lined up alongside members of the Alton VFW Post 1308 and members of Costello’s family, who stood with a member of the Honor Guard from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
The side-hatch of the jet slowly opened, and a red stepladder lowered. Out climbed other Honor Guard members who flew with Costello’s body to Illinois. A few minutes later, the flag-draped casket was taken off the plane.
The somber ceremony brought the normally bustling airport to near complete silence, as the Honor Guard carried the casket in lockstep for about 100 feet to a waiting hearse.
Only the crying of family members and his 4-year-old daughter broke the silence at the end of the ceremony. The ceremony was brought to a close by line of six police cars from Carlinville, Greenfield, Macoupin County, Madison County and the Illinois State Police when officers started their engines in sequence and began to leave the airport.
More than 50 Patriot Guard motorcycle riders and police escorted the procession to a Davis-Anderson Funeral Home in Carlinville. Costello will have a private funeral Monday.
Costello grew up throughout the region and looked at the Army as a steppingstone to his goal of becoming an Illinois state trooper. He grew up in Carlinville and moved to Greenfield for his freshman year of high school and had recently lived in Bunker Hill.
Family remembered him as a cheerful and mild-mannered young man with a knack for getting people out of bad moods and surprising loved ones with gifts, like a bouquet of flowers for his mother last Mother’s Day, said his mother Debra Costello.
Costello joined the Army in 2005 after earning his GED. His brother, Joel Rhodes, was also serving in Iraq but has been placed on extended leave.
——
Our previous coverage:
Weather delays return of soldier’s body
Family tells of slain soldier
Area soldier killed in Iraq
Costello obituary
—–
To see more of The Telegraph or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thetelegraph.com/.
Copyright (c) 2007, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.