Family, friends honor fallen soldier

By Chris Rosenblum

TAYLOR TOWNSHIP — In a snowy graveyard, next to the mountain woods he loved, Sgt. Timothy Van Orman rested in peace.

Family and friends crowded together Saturday on a bright, cold morning to pay their last respects to the 24-year-old father from Port Matilda, killed Feb. 5 in Iraq on his third combat tour. He and two other soldiers on patrol died from a bomb.

“In the giving of his life, he has shown himself a strong warrior,” said the Rev. David Spaugh at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery beside a tiny country church. “His life was not in vain, and it was not given in vain. He served his country.”

Van Orman’s military burial came two days after another at Arlington National Cemetery for Chief Petty Officer Michael Koch, 29, a Navy SEAL and former Penn State student with family in Jersey Shore. Koch was shot Feb. 4 in Iraq.

On Saturday, echoes from a color guard’s rifle salute crashed across fields and ravines, giving way to a bugler sounding taps. Only American flags fluttering in the wind broke the silence as soldiers in black berets folded the Stars and Stripes covering Van Orman’s casket.

National Guard, Army Reserve and active-duty troops, some from Van Orman’s unit, the 10th Mountain Division, bid farewell to a fallen comrade.

Staff Sgt. Chris McGee, a 28th Division Guardsman, wept for the nephew he used to wrestle playfully. “He always wanted to be part of the family,” McGee said afterward, struggling to speak. “Family meant the most to him.”

Van Orman left a wife, Catherine, and a daughter, Halie, almost 10 months old. Surviving him also are his parents, Randy and Kelly Van Orman; a brother, Michael Van Orman, serving in the Army; and two sisters, Cynthia Shouey and Tonya Konachik.

Mourners packing the Bald Eagle Baptist Church on Saturday joined the Van Orman family in remembering a young man who enjoyed hunting, music, NASCAR racing and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We are gathered here in memory of my nephew, Timothy Randy Van Orman, a brave soldier, a dedicated patriot, a loving son and grandson, a protective husband and father, a fun-loving brother and a loyal friend,” Melvin Van Orman said while delivering the eulogy.

Earlier in the week, Kelly Van Orman said her son relished tracking deer and other quarry with his father on his family’s 110 acres and neighboring state gamelands. He never outgrew his yen for liver and onions, and it was hard to catch him sloppily dressed.

“Tim always liked to look his best,” Kelly Van Orman said. “He probably was my fussiest child when it came to clothes. He might wear blue jeans, but they had to be ironed and looking nice.”

A muscular kid, her son played sports early on but discovered the trombone in junior high school. He went on to become a stalwart member of the Bald Eagle Area High School jazz, concert and marching bands.

“When Tim was focused on something, he gave wholeheartedly, 100 percent,” Kelly Van Orman said. “It didn’t matter what it was.”

In high school and occasionally afterward, he helped his father restore vintage cars, dreaming at one point of turning a 1984 Thunderbird into a drag racer.

But he found his true niche in the Army.

A year after graduation, he enlisted in 2003, inspired by the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American soil more than his Penn State classes.

Two years in Afghanistan came next, followed in 2006 by his wedding and then a deployment to Iraq. He returned last September, missing his wife and baby girl terribly but as committed as ever to his service.

“He had no qualms about going,” Kelly Van Orman said. “He felt that it was his job.”

When he hit the town of Al Muqdadiyah on a Feb. 5 operation, her son had become a decorated fire team leader with 2nd Battalion, 22nd Regiment. A blast mortally wounded him and two 82nd Airborne Division soldiers as they searched houses.

“Tim is no longer in need of our prayers, folks, but his family is,” Melvin Van Orman said at his nephew’s funeral. “I hope you would hold them up close in your hearts and your prayers.”

With one of his own, he concluded his eulogy.

“Today, we don’t say goodbye to Tim,” he said. “We say, ‘See you later, buddy. Take care.’ ”

At the end, before a pianist played “America the Beautiful” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” soldiers stepped forward. Slowly, carefully, they rolled Van Orman’s flag-draped coffin down the aisle, away from the framed photo of him cradling a tiny infant and toward the open door.

Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.