BOHR, Jeffery Edwad 1964 - 2003

BOHR

Posted By: C Street (email)
Date: 7/7/2005 at 09:48:47

Godspeed to heaven

Family, town say goodbye to Iowan

By MARK SIEBERT
DES MOINES REGISTER April 24, 2003

OSSIAN, Iowa - Richard Bohr's voice wavered as he finished reading a family tribute to his oldest brother.

Jeffery Edward Bohr, a 39-year-old gunnery sergeant with the U.S. Marines, was killed April 10 during a gun battle in Baghdad.

His funeral was Wednesday in his hometown. After the hourlong service, Richard Bohr helped carefully drape his brother's silver and gray casket with a U.S. flag and then carried it outside the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church.

"The next time someone tells you that burning our flag is right, and that it's just a piece of cloth," Richard Bohr said, standing beside the casket, "that piece of cloth symbolizes a 6-foot, 200-pound hero that gave you that right. It's called Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Bohr."

More than 500 people crowded into the church on the edge of this small northeast Iowa town Wednesday to pay their respects to Bohr, a local boy who became the second Iowa casualty in the war with Iraq.

On Wednesday, flags in the town of 850 flew at half-staff at the post office, senior center, community building and Security State Bank. They flew at half-staff at the All Veterans Memorial, a black granite monument dedicated last year with the words "Freedom Isn't Free."

Flags also fluttered on light poles along Main Street and in the hands of schoolchildren. Students lined the streets - first in Ossian, then in nearby Calmar as Bohr's body was taken to Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cedar Rapids for burial.

At St. Francis de Sales, family, friends and fellow Marines remembered Bohr - "Gunny" - as a quiet but intense man who loved being a Marine.

He grew up in Ossian, the son of Edward and Jeanette Bohr. He first attended St. Francis de Sales grade school, then South Winneshiek High in Calmar.

He dabbled in wrestling, football and FFA but was focused mostly on a military career.

He enlisted in the Army reserves as a junior and had completed boot camp before graduating in 1982.

He eventually became an Army Ranger, serving as a paratrooper in Grenada and in Desert Storm. In 1993, he transferred to the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton in California, where he trained Marines.

"Gunny never forgot where he came from," Marine Col. David Bethel said during Wednesday's service. "His roots were here. He was part of the town, part of the community."

Bethel remembered Bohr for his work teaching other Marines at the infantry school. He talked about a fellow Marine who was quiet but opinionated when asked a question.

Bohr had an intense, square-jaw look to him in military photographs. But Bethel said he went from bear to teddy bear around his wife, Lori, a Cedar Rapids native.

The two met in California and would have celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary Saturday.

The couple did not have children. Bohr did have two dogs, boxers named Tank and Sea Czar, that he ran with daily. Two boxer figurines were placed by his side in the casket.

Bohr's family and fellow Marines said he knew the dangers of going to Iraq but thought it was the right thing to do. He was shipped to the Middle East in February with the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, Alpha Company.

Bohr was shot twice during a seven-hour gun battle near a Baghdad mosque where Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was believed to be hiding. Twenty-two other American troops were injured.

"Gunny wanted to go," Bethel said, "and he wanted to be there with his Marines."

Several Marines in dress blues sat in the pews Wednesday. Also there were six rows of mostly gray-haired men from American Legion posts.

They fired off a three-volley salute outside after the funeral and after remarks from Bohr's four brothers.

Richard Bohr, who followed his brother into the military, read the last lines of the tribute: "Jeff, now that you have had your last formation and are dismissed from your duties on Earth, God has you in his first formation. Calling out Gunnery Sergeant Bohr - all present and accounted for. Godspeed to heaven. Semper fi. Marines lead the way."

Richard Bohr, who lives in Minneapolis, is a 36-year-old sergeant with Bravo Company 389 Combat Engineers based in Decorah. The unit is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq next month from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

He plans to visit the mosque where his brother was killed and place a cross on the site, another tribute to his older brother.