|
Matthew R. Soper—September 2007 Shipment Honoree
Army Pfc.,
age
25, of
Kalamazoo, Mich., died June 6, 2007 in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds
sustained from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned
to the 1461st Transportation Company (Combat Heavy Equipment),
Michigan Army National Guard, Jackson, Michigan.
Soldier Dies “doing what I love”
Source:
Jackson Citizen Patriot
(http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_extra/in_memory_of_sgt_matthew_soper/)
By
Danielle Quisenberry
In every e-mail, every call, Sgt.
Matthew Soper assured his family in Jackson that he believed
in the cause. "He told me—‘If I die there, don't think I
didn't die doing what I love,'" said Soper's oldest sister,
Amy Ciokajlo.
 Soper,
26, of Jackson was killed this week in Iraq, where he was
serving with the Michigan Army National Guard's 1461st
Transportation Company, based in Jackson.
Wednesday
evening, two men in uniform arrived at his family's home on S.
Webster Street, walking through trees decked with yellow
ribbons, to deliver the news that left the tight-knit family
numb. "This isn't supposed to be happening to us," said
Ciokajlo, 36, sitting on her parents' front porch late
Wednesday and dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
In front
of her, dozens of family friends were gathered on the dark
lawn, holding candles and reciting the Lord's Prayer. One held
a sign that read, "You're in our prayers. United we stand."
Soper is
the third soldier from Jackson County killed in Iraq and the
first to die from the 1461st Transportation Company in two
wars. This was his second tour in Iraq.
Just about
two years ago, Soper's family was celebrating his return from
the war. He returned home in February 2005 after nearly a year
fighting with the 1462nd Transportation Company of Howell. As
part of his 2005 homecoming celebration, Soper cut down yellow
ribbon around an elm tree in his parents' yard. "My dad put
the yellow ribbon up the day I left for Iraq, and I chopped it
down," Soper told the
Citizen Patriot. "I made it."
After his
return, he spent some time in Kalamazoo, taking classes at
Kalamazoo Valley Community College until he was called to duty
last year. He was among 299 soldiers mobilized in Jackson last
June for deployment with the 1461st Transportation Company. It
is a truck-driving unit that transports tanks in huge vehicles
the Army calls HETs, for heavy equipment transport.
The 1461st
is expected to return home in August. "He was just counting
down the days until he could come home," said his aunt, Sandy
Cannons of Jackson.
She and
the rest of the family last saw Soper—the fifth of Warner and
Shirley Soper's eight children—when he surprised everyone and
came home in March to celebrate his grandmother's 80th
birthday. "That was his style—the grand entrance," Ciokajlo
said.
He would
walk into a room and "light everyone up," Cannons said and
recalled him dancing in March to "Hillbilly Deluxe," a country
song by Brooks & Dunn.
Sgt. Brian
Guenther of Jackson served with Soper in Iraq in Soper's first
tour. Guenther said they did not know each other well—"I was
in admin and he was out on the trucks"—but Soper was "a pretty
gung-ho guy."
"He wanted
to be there," Guenther said. "He volunteered to come back
again. He was well respected."
Cannons
spoke repeatedly of the pride she takes in her nephew. "I was
always proud of him, even when he was naughty."
As a boy,
he made some mistakes, Ciokajlo and Cannons said; one was
dropping out of Lumen Christi High School, though he later
earned his GED.
But his
service in the military changed him, Ciokajlo said. "He's
turned into a great human being. The military really did turn
him around." Soper was considering making a career of the
armed services, his sister said. He joined to "call something
his own," she said. He was afraid he had caused disappointment
and wanted to do something that would make others proud.
It is
clear he did that. "I've told him every chance I got how proud
of him and how honored I felt to be his sister," Ciokajlo
said. She said he was inspired by the positive things that
were happening in Iraq and refused to watch news reports he
considered negative. They never showed the good things, he
would complain.
Ciokajlo
said Soper led caravans while in Iraq, manning the front
vehicle gun. "I can't imagine how many lives he saved," his
sister said.
The 1461st
Transportation Company was last deployed for the Gulf War in
1990. Two detachments of soldiers, one including Soper, have
served in Iraq with other units.
Soper’s friends home for funeral
Source:
Jackson Citizen Patriot
(http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_extra/in_memory_of_sgt_matthew_soper/)
By Holly
Klaft
 Derek
Eisele and Matthew Soper were inseparable. They had spent
nearly every day together since they were classmates at
Jackson Catholic Middle School. They joined the Michigan Army
National Guard together, fought next to one another on their
first tour in Iraq and headed out together with the 1461st
Transportation Company for the second.
"We
couldn't get away from each other," Eisele said. "He was my
roommate, my gun partner and my battle buddy. You feel 100
 times
safer when it's your best friend protecting your back."
So when
the pair parted ways earlier this year for different
assignments, the separation caused some uneasiness.
It was two months before they would see one another again,
when Soper surprised Eisele by stopping at his base.
"Maybe it was God saying Matt's got to see you one more time,"
Eisele said.
Two weeks
later, Soper, 25, was killed when an improvised bomb struck
his vehicle. His death devastated friends and relatives who
say they're trying to mend the gaping hole in their lives.
Soper's funeral is at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Lumen Christi
High School gymnasium.
Coming
home
After
learning of their son's death, Shirley and Warner Soper spent
the next week "knocking down doors" to bring his best friends
and military family home. They succeeded last week when four,
including Eisele, returned to Michigan.
"It's what
Matthew would have wanted, and it's what we wanted," Shirley
Soper said. "They needed to be here." The trip home was a
relief for Soper's close friends, who were told they wouldn't
be able to attend the funeral.
"I would
have been a wreck if they didn't let me come home," said John
Phelps, Soper's longtime friend who is a communications
officer in the 1461st. "This is what I needed to do, to come
home and be with the people who knew and loved him like I did.
I'm so grateful just to make it back so I could say goodbye to
my brother."
Nearly 500
soldiers attended Soper's memorial service in Iraq, Phelps
said. "Everyone knew he was a hero," he said. "He was always
busy looking out for everyone else."
Battle
bonds
During the
first week of their tour in Iraq three years ago, Eisele and
Soper's convoy was struck by a bomb while traveling from
Kuwait. Eisele said having Soper at his side helped him get
through the anxiety.
"Your
heart drops, and it races," Eisele said. "We got that feeling
that this is going to happen to us every day. It took awhile
to get used to but just having a familiar face and seeing each
other, you'd feel more like you were home."
Eisele was
with Soper when he was moved up to the position as gunner.
Soper loved it and would volunteer for the dangerous position
as lead gunner, eagerly telling friends about the roadside
bombs he was able to spot.
"He'd come
back and say 'I found another one. No big deal,'" said Soper's
girlfriend, Alicia Oleksiak, who served with him in the
1461st. "Everyone relied on Matt. They knew when he was up
there, nothing was getting by."
Soper was
in a great mood when he left with his convoy the day his
vehicle was struck, Oleksiak said. He was set to return home
in August and weeks earlier had spent hours discussing plans
with Eisele for a raucous welcome-home party.
For
Oleksiak, it still doesn't seem real. "When they told me what
happened it felt like my heart was getting ripped out of my
chest," Oleksiak said. "I don't think I've ever cried so hard
in my life."
A somber
return
Shirley
Soper met her son's casket Wednesday at Jackson County
Airport, greeting him as if he had just stepped off the plane
with his company. Some family members didn't go, knowing it
would be too heartbreaking for them to bear. "As a mother it
was something I had to do," she said. "I got to kiss him 100
times. I got to see his face and touch his hands."
Army
officials tell soldiers to write letters to their families in
case something should happen to them, but Soper brushed off
the idea during his first tour, reassuring everyone he would
return home, Warner Soper said.
Before
returning to Michigan, Eisele headed to Soper's barracks to
pick up some of his personal items. Stuck under his computer
was an envelope addressed to his family in case he didn't make
it home alive.
"I didn't
know he could write like that. It was so beautiful," Warner
Soper said in tears. In the three-page letter Soper thanked
his family for everything they've done and let them know he
would continue to watch out for them.
"It said
if we wanted to talk to him, just to look up and I'll be the
first star you see," Shirley Soper said. "I looked up at the
stars for him last night."
Thousands attend emotional funeral for Soper
Source:
Jackson Citizen Patriot
(http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_extra/in_memory_of_sgt_matthew_soper/)
By
Danielle Quisenberry and Chris Gautz; staff writer Holly Klaft
contributed to this story.
 To
honor a soldier many had never met, they came in the
thousands. They waved American flags, stood at rigid attention
or wiped away tears for a family overcome by loss. About 1,500
people Tuesday crowded into the Lumen Christi Catholic High
School gymnasium for Sgt. Matthew Soper's funeral mass.
Hundreds more lined Jackson streets, watching silently, as the
hearse carrying Soper's body made a somber journey to St.
John's Cemetery on E. South Street.
"This man
gave his life for our freedom," said Daniel Barnes of Jackson,
a leather-clad biker who did not know Soper but rode in the
funeral procession with more than 300 other vehicles. "The
very least we can do is show our respect."
Soper, 25
died June 6, 2007 in Baji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive
device hit his patrol vehicle. He was serving his second tour
of duty with the Jackson-based Michigan Army National Guard
1461st Transportation Company.
Tuesday, a
silent crowd rose to its feet in reverence as his flag-draped
coffin was taken through a light rain and into the high school
gym. Soper's weeping family walked slowly behind it.
His seven
siblings, their spouses and his parents, Shirley and Warner
Soper, filled the front rows of the gym as Father Bernard
Reilly, of St. Mary Catholic Church in Jackson, delivered the
homily. "(Soper) was unique and had that unique place in the
family ... and in your hearts," said Reilly, standing at a
podium flanked by red, white and blue flowers.
As he and
others spoke, men and women dabbed their eyes with tissues.
Soper's best friend, Sgt. Derek Eisele, shook with emotion
when Reilly referred to him and A.J. Curtis as "brothers" to
Soper.
Many who
had been able to maintain composure broke down as they viewed
a slide show of family photos, accompanied by live acoustic
guitar versions of popular country music songs, "An American
Soldier" and "If You're Reading This." Pictures spanning
Soper's life—from a boy with his face smeared with food to a
soldier kissing a niece—had men wiping their eyes.
Toward the
end of the Mass, Soper's brother-in-law, Jay Ciokajlo, fought
his emotions as he read a poem Soper wrote. Soper's friends
found it in his room in Iraq after he died.
An
excerpt:
"I am that which others do not want to be.
I went
where others feared to go.
And did what others failed to do.
I
asked for nothing from those who gave nothing ...
At least
some day I will be able to say that I was proud of what I did
and who I am."
Ciokajlo
continued by sharing memories of Soper, who nicknamed himself
"Big Slick."
"He was
extreme. He wanted to be extreme in all he did. He did not get
lost in a crowd," Ciokajlo said. He was the "life of the
party" and "all that and a bucket of chicken to the ladies,"
he said, drawing laughs from Soper's family. It was a light
moment in an otherwise serious ceremony.
More than
100 military personnel attended the funeral, standing at
attention as Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler awarded Soper with the
Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. The Purple Heart is awarded
to soldiers wounded in combat. The Bronze Star honors acts of
heroism or meritorious service.
When the
1-hour, 45-minute service ended at about noon, more than 200
cars and trucks and about 100 motorcycles made their way along
the five-mile procession to the cemetery for a grave-side
service. The family rode in a white recreational vehicle
marked with Soper's name on its side as those along the route
stood for what amounted to a silent parade for a soldier
everyone called heroic.
Among them
was Andrea Beeler of Napoleon, whose brother, Marine Lance
Cpl. Brent Beeler, 22, was fatally shot in the chest Dec. 7
while on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq. He was serving with a
Lansing-based Marine Corps Reserve company.
"I figured
I should be here," said Beeler, 19. Community support got her
family through the rough time after her brother's death, she
said, holding a small flag. "I don't know what I can do as one
person, but I know it helped me."
About 100
feet away, David Kughn, a 59-year-old Vietnam War veteran,
stood on the corner of Jackson Street and Washington Avenue
tightly gripping a 5-foot American flag and wearing a red,
white and blue polo shirt.
"We
wouldn't be able to stand out here today and do what we want
if it wasn't for them," Kughn said as procession vehicles
approached a 25-by-40 foot American flag, waving about 40 feet
above Washington Avenue.
The
enormous patriotic symbol was strung up near Mechanic Street
by Blackman and Spring Arbor township fire department ladder
trucks to honor Soper. The flag was loaned to Blackman by the
Hot Air Jubilee.
All the
support was "wonderful," said Soper's aunt, Sandy Cannons of
Jackson. "It just touched the hearts ... I know it meant the
world to Shirley and Warner and the kids."
Master
Sgt. Bill Bain said in 20 years of military service he has
never seen such an outpouring of support. "I was really amazed
how this community stepped up." Bain served with Soper when he
toured Iraq in 2004 and 2005 with the National Guard 1462nd
Transportation Company, based in Howell.
It always
hurts when a soldier dies, he said, his face showing obvious
signs of expelled tears. "But he was one of our own ... He was
one of the best."
Tough but gentle is how community remembers Matthew
Source:
Jackson Citizen Patriot
(http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_extra/in_memory_of_sgt_matthew_soper/)
By Holly
Klaft
Matthew
Soper was "one of the toughest kids you'd ever meet." The
rough-and-tumble 26 year old volunteered to go to Iraq and
take on the dangerous position of lead gunner in the Michigan
Army Guard's 1461st Transportation Company.
He was
such an aggressive athlete in high school, football coaches
moved him up to the varsity team in his sophomore year. "He
was a risk-taker," said Herb Brogan, head football coach for
Lumen Christi High School. "He was always challenging the
limits, and he had that enthusiasm."
Family,
friends and Jackson residents mourned the loss of the devoted
soldier, who they said always gave 100 percent to serving his
country. "He loved the Army," said Soper's godmother Karen
Manser. "It really meant something to him to fight for his
country."
Soper
loved Lumen Christi football and showed his pride for the
military by wearing his uniform to his younger brother's
games, Brogan said. "He was awfully proud of what he was doing
and it was more or less his calling," he said.
Soper was
a "natural athlete" and played basketball and football his
freshman and sophomore years at Lumen Christi. He also played
baseball his freshman year. Coaches and teammates said the
skilled basketball forward and football defensive end was an
aggressive player who stood out as a leader.
"He never
backed down from anything," said friend and former teammate
Andy Hawley. "He was one of the few sophomores that got moved
up to varsity and he just stepped right in and wasn't
intimidated."
Though he
was tough on the field, he was always gentle with the children
who knew and looked up to him, said Pat Neville, junior
varsity football and basketball coach for Lumen Christi. "It
was such an enjoyable time seeing him interact with the little
kids," Neville said. "He was this big kid taking care of
little kids. Some high school kids think they're too good to
play with kids, but he really played with them."
Soper
always made time for the people in his life—especially the
children—and was a favorite uncle.
"He loved
to tease the kids and get them riled up, but he was always
really gentle," said Manser, an assistant to the principal at
St. Mary's School in Jackson.
Soper was
supposed to visit a second-grade class at the school when he
returned. The class had been sending Soper care packages and
letters since his deployment a year ago and prayed for him
every day, Manser said. They were putting together another
bundle of packages and letters to send him this month.
Manser
said Soper's niece, Meg, loved him so much she told the family
she "needed to go to heaven to be with uncle Matt." "He was
really a special boy and a good kid," Manser said, fighting
back tears. She said the family has been amazed by the
outpouring of support from the community.
"You have
all the respect and admiration in the world for those kids who
serve and say a prayer for them every night," Brogan said.
"There's nothing in the world you can say to make anyone feel
better. All you can do is be there."
Other links:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/dates/2007/jun/06/matthew-soper/
http://obits.mlive.com/Jackson/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=89075234
http://www.mco.com/valor/2827189.html
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-23442_28502-170449--,00.html
http://www.mlive.com/jacitpat/video/flash/index.ssf?20070619soper
http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_extra/in_memory_of_sgt_matthew_soper/
This
link contains many stories about Matthew Soper. | 
