STAFF SGT. ERICKSON H. PETTY

OKLAHOMAN ONE OF 18 REPORTED KILLED IN IRAQ

From "The Tulsa World," Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Section A, Page 1 - Continued on Section A, Page 6

OKALHOMA CITY (AP) -- An Army soldier from Oklahoma was among 18 troops listed by U.S. officials Tuesday as having been killed in Iraq. (See "OKLAHOMANS")

Staff. Sgt. Erickson H. Petty, 28, of Fort Gibson was killed by small-arms fire Monday while providing security at a weapons cache in Salman Al Habb, Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

Petty was assigned to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division at Smith Barracks in Baumholder, Germany, the department said.

Petty's brother, Kyle Petty, told KJRH, channel 2, in Tulsa that while growing up in eastern Oklahoma, Eric Petty knew he wanted to be a soldier.

The brother said he would travel with his parents to Germany on Wednesday to help with funeral arrangements. He said Petty was married and had a 9-year-old son.

Fort Gibson lowered flags to half-staff Tuesday in honor of Petty, a 1993 graduate of Fort Gibson High School.

Petty would have turned 29 on Tuesday.

TOWN HALL, FORT GIBSON, OKLAHOMA
Flags Fly At Half-Staff In Fort Gibson,
Oklahoma, in Honor of Eric Petty.
(Photo By Betsy Mayo-Smith.)

"ONE OF OUR OWN FALLS IN IRAQ"

'I DON'T LIKE TO BURY MY BOYS'
By Julie Hubbard, Phoenix Staff Writer
From the "Muskogee Phoenix," Muskogee, Oklahoma, Wednesday, May 5, 2004

FORT GIBSON -- Taped to the side of senior English teacher Kim Imhoff's classroom door is a photo of U. S. Army Sgt. Eric Petty, a blond-haired, skinny kid smiling in his Army uniform.

There are 26 photos of her former students at Fort Gibson High School who are now serving in the military.

Her class need to know the price of freedom, she says of the shrine.

"These are all my boys," Imhoff says, starting to cry. "I don't like to bury my boys."

The war in Iraq had just hit home, said many of the 4,054 people in Fort Gibson when they heard of Petty's death this week.

"He's probably wearing an Army shirt in this one, too," said Imhoff, looking at a 1993 senior class picture of Petty and his classmates.

Since Monday afternoon, she's been getting e-mails from them with memories of the kid who loved to debate foreign policy and whose father, a Vietnam veteran, came to talk to his class once, she said.

"As a teacher you have all kinds of heroes. Some play football and some serve in the military," Imhoff said. "It makes me proud he died doing what he wanted to do."

At Robert S. Langston Memorial Park, a flag was at half-staff in the town square, in honor of the fallen soldier.

"Seeing that flag hit home," said David Haas, who lives just down the street.

He was talking about Petty's death to Korean War Veteran Jack Edwards, who sat in his wheelchair in the front yard.

"I didn't know him," Edwards said. "It saddens me to think that some of our local boys are getting killed over there. Oklahoma's had a lot of them."

Another Fort Gibson graduate who had returned from Iraq a year ago also felt the sting of Petty's death.

"I remember him leaving," said Zach Hobbs, a mechanic who served with the 5th Battalion of the 10th Marines. "My mom called me and told me today. You see it every day in the news, people are dying left and right."

"But when someone from Fort Gibson dies, it makes you feel like they need to bring them home."

School officials said they also will fly a flag at half-staff until after Petty's funeral.

You can reach reporter Julie Hubbard at 918-684-2926 or
jhubbard@muskogeephoenix.com

OBITUARIES
From the "Muskogee Phoenix," Muskogee, Oklahoma, Thursday, May 6, 2004

FORT GIBSON -- PETTY, U. S. Army Sgt. Eric, 28, died Monday. Services pending, Foster-Petering Funeral Home.

"FAMILY MOURNS LOSS OF SOLDIER"

FUNERAL SERVICE WILL BE TUESDAY
By Cathy Spaulding, Phoneix Staff Writer
From the "Muskogee Phoenix," Muskogee, Oklahoma, Thursday, May 6, 2004

FORT GIBSON -- One picture shows Staff Sgt. Erickson Petty standing tall and proud in his Army combat uniform, his face open and eager.

Another shows Petty with a smile across his firm jaw as he poses with wife, Kim, and son, Colton, for a Christmas portrait.

"They're the last pictures we have of him," said Petty's mother-in-law, Jerry Langton. "We only have a few pictures because when he went into the service, he couldn't go home the way you or I could go home."

Jerry Langton talks Wednesday about her
son-in-law, Eric Petty, who was killed in Iraq
on Monday. (Staff photo by Jennifer Lyles).

Langton clings tightly to those mementos -- almost all she has left of Petty, who was killed Monday in an Iraqi ambush. Petty would have turned 29 Tuesday, the first anniversary of his Iraq deployment and 12th anniversary of military service, she said.

The Department of Defense officially announced Petty's death late Tuesday. U. S. Army Public Affairs reported that Petty died Monday in Salman Al Habb, Iraq, from an attack by small-arms fire while conducting security of a weapons cache.

He had been assigned to Headquarters Company, First Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Smith Barracks. The unit was based out of Baumholder, Germany, where Petty lived with his wife and son.

A graveside service will be Tuesday at Fort Gibson National Cemetery, but Langton said no time has been set as of Wednesday afternoon. Foster-Petering Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

A spokesman for Fort Gibson National Cemetery said Petty will be the first Iraq War veteran to be buried there.

Petty had earlier expressed a desire to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Jerry Langton said. "But his folks and we decided that maybe this would be a better place. He has lots of family here."

The American flag flies at half-staff in
Robert S. Langston Memorial Park in Fort
Gibson. (Staff photo by Jennifer Lyles).

Langon said her daughter and granedson will return to the United States with Petty's body Sunday.

She said her daughter has called constatly since being told of the death Monday.

"I've talked with her several times a day," Langton said. "But she has her church family and the military friends to help her there."

Kim Petty also has her own resilience, said her father, J. W. Langton.

"Our daughter is a real strong person, like her father," he said. "I didn't think I raised to girl to be so strong."

Jerry Langton said she expects her daughter to come back to the Fort Gibson area to live and be near family.

"Colton needs his family," she said.

The boy wanted to get an Army haircut just like his father's, she said.

"My grandson makes me so proud," she said. "But I'd hate for my daughter to go through what we've gone through" in losing a son or son-in-law.

The Langtons remember Eric Petty's dedication to family and country even when he was dating their daughter 12 years ago.

"My mother would tell her 'Kim, I'd latch onto that boy,'" J. W. Langton said. "They were good friends before they started dating."

A native of Ada, Petty moved with his family to Fort Gibson when his father worked at Camp Gruber.

Eric Petty enlisted in the Army before his senior year in high school and continued to support military service after he graduated. He spent three years as an Army recruiter before being sent to Germany, Jerry Langton said.

Petty described his complicated job in an Oct. 5, 2003, issue of his hometown newspaper, The Ada Evening News.

"We're cops, diplomats, public-affairs officers -- and, then, we're just like a regular soldier," the story quoted him as saying. "Oh yeah, and sometimes we're the Humane Society, too."

The story described Baghdad as a town of murder, rapes, lawlessness and kidnapping.

"We don't know who the enemy is half the time," Petty said in the story. "We don't know if they are Saddam's Fedayeen, Baathist loyalists or simple criminals like bank robbers or roving gangs."

And if Petty had to go through all that again, he'd do it again, J. W. Langton said. "He was that kind of guy."

"We are truthfully very proud of him," Jerry Langton said. "It's not just because he gave his life but becuase he was a good man."

You can reach reporter Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or
cspauldling@muskogeephoenix.com

"FRIENDS SET UP TRUST FUND FOR FALLEN SOLDIER

By Cathy Spaulding, Phoenix Staff Writer
From the "Muskogee Phoenix," Muskogee, Oklahoma, Thursday, May 6, 2004

Friends of Staff Sgt. Eric Petty said they had no doubt what Petty would do once he graduated from Fort Gibson High School.

"He was passionate about the military and serving his country," said Connie Pearson, Petty's fellow member of the class of 1993.

Petty was killed in an Iraqi ambush Monday, the day before his 29th birthday. He leaves behind a wife, Kim, and 9-year-old son, Colton.

Members of the Fort Gibson High School class of 1993 hope to honor Petty's sacrifice and set up a memorial trust fund benefitting Petty's son.

High school friends recall that Petty knew exactly what he wanted from life, even as a teen-ager.

"We all knew what he was going to do, in highschool," Pearson said.

By the time he was a senior, Petty already had gone through Army basic training and wore his uniform in his senior picture, she said.

He even used some of his father's clout to get school pictures taken at Camp Gruber, said classmate Greg Branch. The two played wide receiver for the Fort Gibson Tigers football team.

"We were going to get our senior football pictures and Eric was dead set on doing it at Camp Gruber," he said. "He got with his dad, and we got pictures made on old tanks and helicopters."

Branch, who now works at Georgia-Pacific, also recalled Petty's positive attitude. "He was gung-ho, 100 percent on everything," he said. "If he set his mind on doing something, he did it. You could count on him. The night before each football game he'd say, 'We're going into battle.'"

Flags across Fort Gibson are flying at half-staff in Petty's honor.

You can reach reporter Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or
cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com

SOLDIER'S LIFE TRAIL BLAZED FOR MILITARY
By Rod Walton, World Staff Writer

From the "Tulsa World," Tulsa, Oklahoma, Thursday, May 6, 2004
Section A, Page 6

FORT GIBSON -- Army Staff Sgt. Eric Petty was certain where his life was going. From his youth, the Fort Gibson boy watched his father wear the soldier's uniform and knew that was the path he would take.

Petty realized where that road might lead, too. He warned relatives about that from the time he hit Iraq a year ago and never wavered in his honesty, they say.

"He felt it was a very dangerous place," his mother-in-law, Jerry Langton, said Wednesday. "He felt that it was for a good cause."

The soldier's journey ended Monday in Salman Al Habb, Iraq. Petty was shot to death while guarding a weapons cache, according to reports.

Petty served in the 35th Armored Regiment of the 1st Armored Division. He would have turned 29 on Tuesday.

His parents, Ron and Janet Petty, formerly of Fort Gibson, and his brother, Kyle, were flying to Germany on Wednesday to be with Petty's wife, Kimberly, and son, Colton, 9. He will be buried Tuesday in Fort Gibson National Cemetery. The service time is pending with the Foster-Petering Funeral Home in Muskogee.

The 1993 Fort Gibson High School graduate was remembered for his polite yet strong personality and his mature focus on life. Petty joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard -- in which his father still serves as a chief warrant officer -- before he graduated from high school and began dating Kimberly as a junior.

"When he was a little boy and you went to his room, you saw toy soldiers and tanks and boats," his paternal grandmother, Voncille Petty, recalled. You didn't see little cars."

Petty played football in high school and enjoyed friends and classmates, relatives say. Yet he never took his eye off of his ultimate goal.

"He was a fine young man," said Virginia O'Laughlin, an aunt by marriage who works for the Fort Gibson school district. "He was one who loved his country.

"He was Army bound, that's all he talked about."

Petty joined the fulltime Army and married Kimberly after graduation. He served in South Korea and was sent to Germany a little more than a year ago.

He was deployed to Iraq a year ago Tuesday, Langton said. He survived some scary moments in Baghdad, and was ready to ship out when the Army opted to keep many of its soldiers in place.

"He had had several guns pointed at him," Virginia Petty said. "At one point he lifted a Humvee off of one of his men" after an attack.

Langton said Petty was always concerned about the safety of the soldiers under him. In a July letter to her, she said, he expressed thankfulness to those praying for him but had another request.

"He wanted them to pray for his men," she said. "A lot of them didn't have families praying for them or sending them things."

Petty also told family members that he believed deeply in what the U.S. military was doing in Iraq.

"He was proud of what he was doing," Voncille Petty said, adding that relatives shared that same pride in him.

"We think he's a hero."

----------

Rod Walton 918-581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

From "The Tulsa World," Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday, May 8, 2004

FORT GIBSON -- Erickson Heath "Eric" Petty, 28, Army staff sergeant, died Monday in Iraq. Service 2 p.m. Tuesday, First Baptist Church, Fort Gibson, Foster-Petering, Muskogee.

Editor's note: Frank L. Craig, editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, met Staff Sgt. Eric Petty during a July trip to Baghdad with reporter Betsy Hiel. Craig wrote this column last week after learning of Petty's death.

On a night patrol in Baghdad last July, Staff Sgt. Eric Petty introduced a couple of journlists to the deadly, frustrating, confusing world of American soldiers in Iraq.

"We don't know who the enemy is half the time," he shouted over a Humvee's engine. He and his men of the 1/35 Scouts were "cops, diplomats, public-affairs officers," as well as soldiers under fire. "Oh, yeah, and sometimes we're the Humane Society, too," feeding stray dogs and cats.

Back then, Baghdad's dark streets were only slightly less dangerous than now. Still, Petty preferred patrolling the unlit neighborhoods because "we're always moving around and that makes us hard to hit, thank God."

When Petty stopped his column of Humvees in one neighborhood, Iraqis greeted him warmly and offered his men cold water and cherries. As the soldiers played soccer with Iraqi boys on the dusty street, Petty said people were slowly starting to trust Americans.

Later, resting on a curb while gunfire crackled in the distance, most of the Scouts talked of home, families, military hardships. "I love this stuff," Petty said. "I'm hard-core. I hope I get back in time to go to Liberia," another tragic land then being soaked in blood.

Staff Sgt. Eric H. Petty, 28, of Fort Gibson, Okla. -- a member of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division; soldier's son, and a soldier himself for 10 years -- never went to Liberia.

On May 3, he died doing what he loved, shot while guarding a cache of seized weaspons in Salman al Habb, according to the Pentagon.

'Band of Brothers;' The 1/35 Scouts reminded me of the men portrayed in "Band of Brothers," a book and HBO series about 101st Airborne Division soldiers in World War II. Petty reminded me of Sgt. Carwood Lipton, played by actor Donnie Wahlberg in the TV series.

On that hot July night in Baghdad, Petty was quietly confident, courageous, decent, hopeful, cool-headed, honest, friendly, funny. He talked knowledgeably about Iraqis and treated them respectfully. He spoke proudly about leading his men, serving his country, giving Iraqis a chance to build a better country.

Long past midnight, at the end of a long patrol, he tenderly greeted a scruffy dog adopted by his men, squatting in the dust to scratch its head.

He was so gung-ho, his men joked, that his wife slipped special weapons-cleaning rags into his care packages. Petty just grinned and shook his head at the ribbing.

Family members say they always knew he wanted to be a soldier and serve his country.

Another soldier's mother, learning of Petty's death, found online a Sept. 14 article by Trib correspondent Betsy Hiel about Petty and his men ("Baghdad after dark: Two nights in the lives of the Army's 1/35 Scouts"). "My son told me how great a man he was," she wrote.

He sure was.

Something valuable and noble: A place like Iraq compresses time, sharpens observations, intensifies emotions.

Just a few hours gave me a lifetime's respect for Petty and his men. They embodied much of what seemed so hopeful about our mission in Iraq.

The events of recent weeks tempt one to conclude that our soldiers are dying for nothing. We want our wars to be clean and bloodless, quick and easy. We lack the national stomach for such sacrifice -- or so our enemies in the world like to say.

Our soldiers are not dying for nothing, of course. They're dying so that 25 million Iraqis can rebuild their lives, after liberating them from a brutal tyrant.

That is something valuable and noble, even if each soldier's life is worth so much more to the people who love them. It cannot be erased by mistakes in Washington, misdeeds by some soldiers, or a misunderstanding by protesters and self-serving politicians of what's at stake.

What would Eric Petty think of those soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners? He would be as angry as most of us, I suspect. He would know better than many of us that the abusers did not just shame their nation: They put at even greater risk their fellow soldiers, who now must patrol less trusting, more hateful streets.

And if he had survived Iraq, what might he have become?

He might well have made the Army a career. But, seeing what a good soldier, what a decent young man, he was in the streets of Baghdad, I imagine he would have been an equally good husband, father, citzen.

That makes his death more tragic and wasteful -- not just a loss to his family, but to a nation that desperatly needs good soldiers and good citizens.

Fulfilling responsibilities: No one can repair the broken hearts or replace the lost dreams of a slain soldier's family. The rest of us can only insist that those soldiers do not die for nothing.

Whether we supported or opposed the war a year ago matters little today. We fought it, still are fighting it -- that is the reality.

Withdrawing without completing the mission we undertook, wisely or not, will render meaningless the deaths of men like Eric Petty. It will break a blood-compact made with every soldier that instant they were ordered to cross the border and risk their lives. It will wound our own nation for a generation or more by once more destroying our credibility, undermining our principles and weakening our military. It will leave our nation, Iraq and the world more dangerous, more hate-filled.

Staff Sgt. Petty wasn't the only brave man I met that sweltering night in Baghdad. One of his men, an ex-Marine in his mid 30s, re-enlisted in the Army after 9/11 because he "couldn't see myself on the sidelines watchin' while a bunch of young guys defended my country."

Of the risks, he simply said that "gettin' killed's part of the deal" of being a soldier.

So it is. So it became for Eric Petty and more than 750 men and women so far.

It shouldn't be for nothing, though. We owe our soldiers a better deal than that.

Erickson (Eric) Heath Petty, 29, died Monday, May 3, 2004, while serving his country in Iraq. Eric was born May 4, 1975, in Ada, Oklahoma, the son of Ronald and Janet (Jones) Petty. At an early age, Eric moved with his family to Ardmore where he attended Lincoln Elementary School. His family returned to Ada for two years during the late 1980's where Eric attended Byng Middle School. In 1989, Eric moved with his family to Ft. Gibson. He entered Ft. Gibson High School and graduated with the class of 1993. While in high school, Eric met the love of his life, Kimberly Langton. The couple was married on January 22, 1994, at the First Baptist Church of Ft. Gibson.

Eric was proud of his state and country and enlisted in the Oklahoma Army National Guard in Muskogee on his 17th birthday. He entered the U.S. Army in November 1993. Eric served a one-year tour in Korea, four state side tours (including a three-year tour as an Army Recruiter in Grand Junction, CO). In February 2003 he was assigned to the 1st Armor Division in Germany, and was sent to Iraq two months later. Staff Sgt. Petty was a 12-year Army Veteran and Platoon Sergeant for the Calvary Scout Platoon of the 1st Armor Division. He loved, and was true to his soldiers, and would not want them to mourn his loss but instead pick up their flags and carry-on. Staff Sgt. Petty was recognized for his valiant efforts with a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Army Commendation Medal. During his career he also received another Army Commendation Medal, six Army Achievement Medals, and other medals for serving in Korea and Iraq.

Eric was preceded in death by his grandfathers, Gene Petty and Buell Jones. He is survived by his loving wife, Kimberly and son, Colton, both of the home; mother and father, Janet and Chief Warrant Officer Four Ronald Petty of Harrah, OK; a brother and sister-in-law, Kyle and Christa Petty of Louisville, KY; grandmothers, Voncille Petty and Mintha Jones both of Ada; mother and father-in-law, Jerry and J. W. Langton of Ft. Gibson; sister-in-law, Shanna Bandy and her husband, David and nieces, Kelsea and Hayley Bandy all of Coweta.

Funeral Services will be Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at 1:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church of Ft. Gibson, with Pastor Tom Barlament officiating. Pastor Barlament is pastor of the Landmark Baptist Church of Grand Junction, CO. He is a former Army Chief Warrant Officer and close personal friend of Eric and his family. Eric and his family consider Landmark Baptist Church to be their home church, and he credits Pastor Barlement for his renewed faith and commitment to God.

Interment will follow in Ft. Gibson National Cemetery. Full Military Honors will be presented at graveside. Pallbearers will be Recruiters from the Denver Recruiting Command.

Funeral services are under the direction of Foster-Petering Funeral Home.

SOLDIER REMEMBERED AS HERO
Mourners are told of Army Staff Sgt. Eric Petty's final
act of bravery before he was killed in Iraq last week.
By Rod Walton, World Staff Writer

From "The Tulsa World," Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Section A, Page 1, Continued on Section A, Page 3

FORT GIBSON -- His father's dog tags proudly secured around his neck Tuesday, 9-year-old Colton Petty showed he already knew what kind of man Army Staff Sgt. Eric Petty was.

They had spent hours playing Madden 2004 video football before his father shipped out to Iraq last year. And the son had heard stories about his dad's courage as a soldier and leader of men in battle.

On Tuesday, Colton and his family joined hundreds of others in hearing more about Eric Petty's life and his ultimate sacrifice.

Petty, killed in Iraq last week, was honored during a funeral service at the First Baptist Church in Fort Gibson, the town where he graduated from high school 11 years ago. Petty was buried at Fort Gibson National Cemetery.

He was one day shy of his 29th birthday when he was shot while guarding a weapons cache in Salman Al Habb.

But that only was the end part of the story, his admirers said Tuesday. Petty died while making sure all of his men got into their vehicles during the attack, putting himself as the last one in when he got shot, according to reports.

"Eric Petty was a patriot," the Rev. Tom Barlement said after reading the account of the soldier's final act of bravery. "Eric Petty was a hero."

Barlament, who was Petty's pastor when he attended a Grand Junction, Colo., church, also talked about a soldier who was devoted to his wife, Kimberly, and to Colton. He remembered a strong-willed, humorous man who taught some interesting survival skills to children during a church camping trip.

"My son came back and said, 'Brother Petty told us if we didn't eat a worm today that we weren't real men,'" Barlament said to laughter amid the mourning.

Others remembered a soldier who wanted so badly to follow in the footsteps of his own father, Oklahoma Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer Ron Petty, that he enlisted in the Reserves on his 17th birthday. Eric Petty joined the active Army after high school graduation.

Army Staff Sgt. Mark Juliano, who served with Petty in Colorado, read letters from other soldiers. One wrote about Petty's grace under pressure, his protectiveness over men under his command. "He never showed the slightest bit of fear," Juliano read. "He was the bravest man I will ever know."

Juliano visibly battled his own grief in reading a few personal comments to Kimberly Petty.

"Your husband made all the difference in my life," he said.

Barlament admitted that he even tried to talk Petty out of leaving Grand Junction more than a year ago. Petty could have stayed on as a successful recruiter, out of harm's way.

"He wanted to go to Iraq," Barlament said.

Petty backed up his desire with action, according to a letter he wrote his pastor after six months in the fight. He recounted how he had been on 125 combat patrols, raids and capture missions while apprehending 10 terrorists, including a high-profile catch on the Iraqi "deck of cards."

At the end of the letter, Barlament read, Petty assured his pastor that he was still concerned about spiritual things.

"I talk to God daily and read my Bible," he wrote. "I ask God to watch over my men."

A note written by Petty's son also was read to the audience. Colton remembered playing the video games and about his dad joyfully yelling, "Move the chains! Move the chains!" while playing the football version.

"I loved spending time with my dad," the boy wrote.

At Fort Gibson National Cemetery, where hundreds upon hundreds of simple white tombstones pay tribute to those who made stark choices for their country, Petty's family, friends and fellow soldiers spent their final moments with his flag-draped coffin.

A trio -- joined suddenly by several family members -- sang about meeting loved ones again "In the Sweet By and By" on that "beautiful shore."

Petty was honored with a 15-gun salute and the playing of taps. Soldiers then took the flag off his coffin, carefully folded it into a triangle of stars and handed it to his widow.

Petty served in the 35th Armored Regiment of the 1st Armored Division. He was the 11th Oklahoma service member killed in the Iraq war.

----------

Rod Walton (918) 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com

FORT GIBSON-- Soldiers saluted, family members wept audibly as a bugler blew taps during Tuesday's graveside service for Staff Sgt. Erickson Heath Petty.

A 1993 Fort Gibson High School graduate, Petty was shot while protecting his troops in an Iraqi ambush near Baghdad on May 3, one day shy of his 29th birthday.

He was laid to rest at Fort Gibson National Cemetery, among rows and rows of white gravestones honoring service men and women of past generations.

Before the graveside service, hundreds packed First Baptist Church of Fort Gibson, where Petty was remembered as a patriot and a hero.

They filed in, soldiers, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers, former teachers, classmates and family, as pianist Daniel Hopkins gently played "Blessed Assurance," "Amazing Grace" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Outside the sanctuary, a table was covered with pictures of Petty in his fatigues, Petty on the day he married Kimberly Langton, Petty and his son, Colton, now 9.

"Eric Petty loved his family and his country," said Tom Barlament, pastor of the Baptist church Petty and his family attended while Petty was an Army recruiter in Grand Junction, Colo.

Barlament said Petty was a good man and a good soldier in may ways.

"Eric was easy to preach to," he said. "He sat up straight and hung on every word. He was hungry for the word of God. And he was a servant. I'd say 'Eric, I need you to do this for me,' and he always got it done right. He cared about his wife, his son and our church."

After the service, Colton, wearing his father's Army tags, followed his father's flag-draped coffin out of the sanctuary. Kimberly Petty and the rest of the family followed.

At the graveside service, a male trio sang "In the Sweet By and By." Several mourners joined their voices.

The U.S. flag covering Petty's casket was folded tightly into a triangle and presented to his widow. His Bronze Star, Purple Heart and two Army commendation medals were placed with the flag in a triangular box.

After the service, family and friends reflected on what Petty loved most.

"Two things he lived for and loved were his wife and his country," classmate Kevin Rowe, now of Broken Arrow, said after the service.

Petty joined the Army National Guard on his 17th birthday, the year before his senior year in high school.

"He wore his uniform to the prom," said classmate Jeremy Rogers, now of Albuquerque. "He wanted to serve his country."

"And if you wanted someone protecting your country, it would be him," classmate Eric Shannon of Muskogee said.

"That's just the kind of person Eric was," said Petty's father, Chief Warrant Officer Ron Petty. "He was silly, he was funny, he was serious."

The elder Petty, dressed in his National Guard uniform, recalled talking with his son about the perils of serving. Ron Petty, who now lives with his wife in Harrah, said his son told him that 97 percent of the Iraqi people wanted the Americans there.

"He and I actually talked about this day," he said. "He never was happy doing anything else, and he truly believed in what we were doing down there (in Iraq)."

You can reach staff writer Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or
cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com