[USMC Chuter]

Boise soldier honored as first veteran in cemetery

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About Idaho's Veterans Cemetery
• Dedicated: July 31. Idaho was the last state in the nation to get a veterans' cemetery.
• Where: North of West State Street, off North Horseshoe Bend Road. Take North Horseshoe Bend Road to Dry Creek Cemetery. The address is 10101 Horseshoe Bend Road.
• Size: 77 acres. The cemetery has room for close to 9,000 graves and cremation sites, including a place to scatter ashes.
• Officially opens: In October. An exception was made to allow Titus to be buried before the official opening.
This Hallowed Ground
For these soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and mariners,
I am this hallowed ground that will caress for eternity,
Their earthly remains, which I will lovingly embrace,
While their souls now reside with their Deity.

The flag to which all here pledged their allegiance,
Adorns this sacred ground,
These sons and daughters of America lost blood, comrades and life,
So that, wherever this flag flies, freedom is found.

As citizens look across my vast tract of land,
Marked by engraved names of patriots who stood their station,
May they see these not as monuments of death,
But as testaments of life for this beloved nation.

— Written by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne
Dedicated to the first soldier laid to rest at the Idaho Veterans Cemetery, Specialist Brandon Titus and all who follow. Aug. 30, 2004
Tim Woodward

The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 08-31-2004
Idaho said goodbye to Brandon Titus on Monday at the new St. Mark's Church. The old one wouldn't have been big enough.

The new West Boise church holds 1,600 people and was filled almost to capacity.

Bystanders saluted and held their hands over their hearts as the funeral procession passed on its way to Idaho's new veterans cemetery — where the 20-year-old Boisean killed in Iraq on Aug. 17 was honored as the first person to be buried there.

On North Horseshoe Bend Road, a man unfurled an American flag as the motorcade passed en route to the cemetery.

More than 130 motorcycles led the way. Mourners covered the spectrum from dignitaries in three-piece suits to bikers in leather vests. Titus's father, Tom Titus, is active in Run for the Wall, a motorcycle ride to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who knew Brandon Titus personally, read a poem titled "This Hallowed Ground." The governor wrote it for Titus and other veterans who will follow him at the new cemetery. Kempthorne is a motorcycle buff and met Tom and Brandon Titus through Run for the Wall.

"Brandon wanted to pay this country back by serving in the military," Kempthorne said. "He knew the risks. He sacrificed as generations of Americans have sacrificed ... Who would have suspected that the first person to be buried in our new cemetery would be this 20-year-old?"

Boisean Paul Revere, a friend of the family, remembered Titus as "a wonderful boy who turned into a wonderful man." He said he and the members of his band, Paul Revere and the Raiders, "loved Brandon and his big smile."

Omar Martinez, the group's drummer, performed in, what for him, was an unusual venue. Flanked by Bishop Michael Driscoll and the Rev. Steve Rukavina on St. Mark's altar, he moved many to tears by singing "Some Gave All."

Rukavina recalled Titus as a young man who was passionate, dared to be different and cared about others.

It is right to honor his death, he said, but not to accept the circumstances that led to it:

"War is always failure on some level, and we all have to accept some responsibility for it. ... We have to create a world in which we don't send children to death. Brandon and his fellow soldiers will never fully rest in peace until we have created a world in which war is unthinkable."

Members of the Borah High School Choral Group sang a tribute as a military honor guard carried Titus's flag-draped casket out of the church. Bikers and other mourners, many wearing yellow ribbons, wept openly.

Titus was a 2002 Borah graduate and a member of the army's 10th Mountain Division. He was killed by an explosive device while on patrol in Baghdad.