[cincymarsdad]

2 return home from Iraq

Families, hearses make final journey

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Kelly Lecker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

RENEE SAUER | DISPATCH

A police honor guard salutes as Marines load the body of Staff Sgt. Kendall H. Ivy II into a hearse.

Lee Ann Ivy welcomed her high-school sweetheart home from Iraq yesterday.

Six days after Staff Sgt. Kendall H. Ivy II, of Galion, died in the war, his wife walked into a cargo bay at PortColumbusInternationalAirport to say goodbye to her husband of nine years.

Outside, 14 local police officers and a Marine stood in two rows that led to a white hearse.

Fifty feet away, the family of Lance Cpl. Wesley G. Davids, of Dublin, waited in silence. Davids, 20, who also died last week, was coming home, too.

The bodies of both men had been returned to Columbus just 30 minutes earlier.

The men were among four reservists from central Ohio who died last week in Iraq. Davids was part of a Columbus company that suffered heavy casualties. Ivy was based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Marine 1 st Sgt. James Halbig was present to help the families with funeral arrangements.

"This is the most important part of my job. We take care of the soldier and the family from the day they leave until the day they come home," Halbig said.

The creaking cargo-bay door signaled that Ivy’s casket was on the way. The officers saluted as six Marines carried the flagdraped box to the hearse.

Lee Ann Ivy watched from the entrance to the cargo bay.

Nobody spoke.

Five minutes later, with the the formation of officers still in place, Davids’ family entered and the door again opened. The second flag-draped coffin was carried to a hearse.

His relatives held each other and cried.

When they walked outside, Lee Ann Ivy grabbed one of the women’s hands. She understood.

Ivy, whose fourth child is due in October, said support from the Marines and family has helped her to stay strong.

"They have never left my side," she said.

She described her husband, who was 28, as being loyal to the Marines and the war in Iraq. He was a jokester who liked Star Wars and sports.