A Merced soldier is laid to rest

A folded flag. A 21-gun salute. A prayer. Taps.

Each of these steps is a stage in the ritualized burial of any American soldier.

It was no different for Pfc. Lukas Hopper, as his daylong funeral Saturday came to an end in a small Catheys Valley cemetery.

The solemn event marked not just the loss of a young man, a son, a brother, and a friend, it was also a vivid reminder of the price the United States continues to pay in its two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hopper, a 20-year-old paratrooper from Merced with the 82 Airborne Division based in Fort Bragg, N.C., died in a noncombat situation in Baghdad on Oct. 30 when his Humvee crashed. He was two weeks away from the end of his deployment.

"I'm not here to talk about how Hopper died, I'm here to talk about how he lived," said Brig. Gen. Robert Abrams before a large crowd in the Second Ward Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday morning in Merced.

The general went on to described Hopper's commitment to the armed forces as more than a duty, but as a commitment to a set of ideals: honor, courage, loyalty. "We mourn his loss," said Abrams in conclusion. As the general handed Hopper's mother, Robin Hopper, her son's posthumous medals, the hall fell silent.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic eventually broke the silence, a collective voice filling the hall with the chorus "glory, glory, hallelujah."

While the funeral was a time for mourning, it was also a celebration of Hopper's life and a reaffirmation of his family's faith.

His friends and family described Hopper as an adventurous, opinionated and fun-loving prankster, who grew up fast after he joined the Army and took his mission seriously once he signed up after high school.

Before the large audience, Hopper's friend Kevin Pope joked that Hopper said if he ever died he would have liked A-list of celebrities at his funeral, with U2's Bono delivering his eulogy.

Hopper's aunt Paula Kruczyk described how in his typical impetuous nature, Hopper joined the Army on a whim. He had originally meant to sign up for the Navy like his father and grandfather, she said. But when the day came to sign up, the Navy recruiter wasn't in his office, so Hopper chose another branch of the armed services instead, she said. "Rather than wait, our impetuous Luke went ahead and signed up for the Army," she said.

Nick Koenig, who knew Hopper since middle school, said that was Hopper's way, he lived in the moment.

Another friend of Hopper's, Colby Jacobs, recalled Hopper's trickster side. At Scout camp when they took canoeing classes, Hopper led the charge in tipping over other people's canoes, he said.

But Hopper had his serious side, too. His oldest sister, Chantal Hopper, said he was a very protective big brother. On her 16th birthday, one of her friends carried her into her backyard. When Hopper saw his sister he charged into the yard yelling, saying no one could pick up his sister.

Hopper's grandfather, John Shaw, who spent time with Hopper fishing and camping in the foothills, said the Army changed his grandson. "He grew up," he said.

On a recent visit home Hopper told his grandfather a little about Iraq, said Shaw. Hopper told him the reality in Iraq was not what most people back home saw on the news. "I always thought what we were seeing was really happening," said Shaw. Hopper told him the majority of Iraqis were not extremists, as he had thought, they were regular people.

Chantal Hopper said the last time she read his Facebook page her brother wrote that he couldn't wait to get home. She said he wrote "he hated it" in Iraq.

Iraq may have had its effect on Hopper, but his former squad leader, Daniel Holden, who stood guard with another paratrooper outside the hearse that held Hopper's coffin, said Hopper was still the goofball everyone in Merced remembered. Hopper drove the squad's Humvee, said Holden. "He was a good kid, always joking." Holden and Hopper used to lock the doors of their vehicle and tell their interpreter the door was open as a joke, he recalled.

Aside from his deeds and nature, family members and the church's bishop spoke of seeing Hopper again in the afterlife.

Hopper's mother said she was consoled in the knowledge that she would be reunited with her son, as the Mormon faith declares. "It is through that sure knowledge that I know we will be a family together again," she said at the head of chapel.

At 1 p.m., the funeral procession drove into the foothills of Mariposa County, led by law enforcement and the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcycle-riding veterans.

At the graveyard in Catheys Valley Cemetery, six paratrooper pallbearers carried Hopper's coffin to his grave. As their boots softly stomped the ground in unison, a line of soldiers stood with their rifles ready in a nearby clearing.

The solemn ceremony then proceeded in ordered silence: the crack of riffle fire, the playing of a bugle, the folding of the flag, a reading from the bible and a benediction.

Before the benediction, Gen. Abrams knelt at the feet of Hopper's parents and presented his mother with an American flag caringly folded into a triangle by the pallbearers.

When Hopper's coffin finally disappeared beneath the ground, the quiet of the graveyard was broken by the sudden sound of his mother's sobs.

Reporter Jonah Owen lamb can be reached at (209) 385-2484 or jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.