Tomorrow morning I’ll be riding in honor of Capt. James A. Funkhouser, 35, of Katy, Texas, who was killed in what has become known as the CBS Mission CBS News cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were also killed by the same IED that killed Capt. Funkhouser)
The Patriot Guard Riders have been invited by his wife and family to take part in the service and burial of her husband.
Houston Chronicle — Jennifer Funkhouser had just returned Monday from a Memorial Day weekend outing with her two young daughters when she saw an Army officer standing on her front step.
She thought the officer was there for something related to the holiday, such as handing out flags to military wives whose husbands were in Iraq.
She could not have been more wrong, or more right.
“I took one look at the major who was there to bring me the news, and I could see it in his eyes. He had been crying. I could tell it was so hard for him to tell me the news,” she said.
Her husband, Capt. James A. Funkhouser Jr., 35, of Katy, was killed in Baghdad on Memorial Day when a car bomb exploded near his Humvee.
CBS News cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were also killed. CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier was critically injured and remains in an Army hospital in Germany.
Like so many other Soldiers, Capt. Funkhouser wanted to be in Iraq; like so many other Soldiers he requested and volunteered to go to Iraq:
Jennifer said her husband served at Fort Hood as an armor officer training men for Iraq. For years, she said, he had tried to get assigned to combat duty.
“He was in charge of training all of these men under him and most of these men had been in Iraq — a lot of them two or three times — and he felt he needed to be there to experience it so he could train them better,” she said.
Before he got his orders for Iraq, she said the two talked often about the realities they faced, if he didn’t come back or if he came back disabled.
“I would ask him what happens if you are killed over there, and he said, ‘You know what, you and the girls will be taken care of. You will go on,’ ” she said.
CJ at Soldier’s Perspective talked with Jennifer Funkhouser about her husband. He has much more details about the life and death of this American hero.
I’ll pray for this family and all the others like them. People like Capt. Funkhouser as well as his family deserve our utmost respect .
Robbie, what you said about the man who had to deliver the message to her about her husband’s death and how he had been crying reminded me of a Pulitzer-winning series put together by The Rocky Mountain News. It was a really moving article about the people whose job it is to deliver news like that and who do it in a caring way. Here’s where you can check it out: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/ if you’ve never seen it.