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Friday, October 27, 2000

Sorrow and praise for a fallen sailor
Gary Swenchonis Jr., a Cole victim, laid to rest
By Deborah Martinez
Caller-Times

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Mike Kaesburg comforts Alisia Hargrove of Rockport as others gather after funeral services for naval fireman Gary Swenchonis Jr.

ROCKPORT - With sailors standing guard by his casket, Gary G. Swenchonis Jr. lay at rest before an admiral who called him a treasure, a community that lamented his loss and a mother and father who tried to let go.
   "He had a kind heart. He dreamed of seeing the world and sharing those sights with his family and friends," his mother, Deborah Swenchonis, said in a note read by a Navy chaplain.
   "He wanted to get married and have a family.

Swenchonis

   "The gaping hole in the USS Cole will be fixed and she will sail to fight another day. But the dreams of Gary and the 16 other sailors have been shattered beyond repair."
   Swenchonis, 26, was among 17 USS Cole sailors who died Oct. 12 in a suicide terrorist bomb attack against their ship, when it ported in Aden, Yemen, to refuel. Other Texans killed in the blast were 21-year-old Timothy Gauna of Ennis and 22-year-old Ronchester Santiago, whose funeral Mass and burial will be in Kingsville today.
   "Fireman Gary Swenchonis was one of those young heroes who was taken too early . . . a true national treasure," Rear Adm. Jose L. Betancourt, commander of the Navy's Mine Warfare Command, told the hundreds who gathered at Charlie Marshall Funeral Home in Rockport.

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Col. Mitch Dockens (from left) Capt. Rick Marcantonio, Rear Adm. Jose L. Betancourt and state Sen. Carlos Truan attended memorial services at Sherrill Park Thursday for the sailors killed in the attack on the Cole.

   "As I sit here today and participate with his family and friends and as I look at his photograph, I'm reminded that he embodies this nation," Betancourt said. "His spirit today lives on in the sailors in fleet."
   The funeral home chapel, which had been still except for an occasional sniffle or bow of a head in prayer, filled with muted sobs as Betancourt presented the Swenchonis family with a Purple Heart.
   "We hurt with you," said Cmdr. Jim Looby, chaplain at Naval Station Ingleside. "We try to make sense of that which is senseless. We try to make sense of that which we don't understand."
   Looby urged the family to embrace their sorrow and to find comfort in his place in heaven.
   "There's a hole in your lives, as a family, that cannot be filled," he said. "And I don't think that it should. It's very, very special. Very, very personal."
   It's a loss that Gary Swenchonis Sr. said makes him appreciate even more what a wonder his son was.
   "I'll tell all the families out there if they hear one thing, God, spend time with your kids," he told Channel 6 News.
   Ann Emery didn't know Gary Swenchonis, nor does she know his family, but the Rockport resident took her 7-year-old daughter, Barbara Ann, to Swenchonis' service.
   "I feel like this is such a loss for everyone," Emery said. "And I want for (Barbara Ann) to understand what part this will play in her life, in history. I thought it would be good for her to understand it, feel it."
   Earlier Thursday, at a memorial service honoring Swenchonis and Santiago, given by the Dr. Hector P. Garcia chapter of the American GI Forum, a crowd of veterans, politicians and military officers said their own goodbye.
   "Any time we have a service member fall, especially when they're from the local community, we feel we need to support them and their families," said Capt. Rick Marcantonio, Naval Air Station Corpus Christi commander. "Their lives weren't for nothing. They contributed to our country's safety."
   For Gary Swenchonis Sr., it was as if the past two weeks - from days holding out hope that his son would be found and days where it felt like there was no hope, and finally to the day his son was found dead - Thursday was a time to face life without Gary Jr.
   "It is a time to say goodbye," the former Army service member wrote in a note read by the chaplain. "And it is a time to pick up the pieces and march on smartly."



Staff writer Deborah Mart¡nez can be reached at 886-3618 or by e-mail at martinezd@caller.com

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