SSG Michael Lee Deason, July 23, 1978 - Aug. 31, 2006

By DONNA HICKMAN\Daily Journal Staff Writer

Monday, September 11, 2006 11:22 AM CDT

Army Staff Sergeant Michael Deason was remembered Sunday for the way he loved his family, the way he entertained his friends and the way he served his country.

The 28-year-old Deason was killed Aug. 31 when a grenade hit the Humvee in which he was riding. His death happened just a week before he was to come home.

“Some say since he died, he's become a hero,” said Rev. Brad Dush, who grew up with Deason, “but it wasn't his death that made him a hero, it was his life and the way he chose to live it.”

His flag-draped casket lay beneath a lighted cross at Farmington First Assembly of God Church, in front of the same altar where it was said Deason had given his heart to Jesus when he was a little boy. Patriotic music played throughout the service. Someone led the crowd in a verse of “Amazing Grace.”

His sister, Linda Abbott, read from a poem her brother had written to his family one Christmas when he couldn't be home. In it, he wrote, “I'm not with you for this holiday cheer. I'm defending my country, my gift to you this year.”

Members of Deason's unit in Iraq were at the funeral to share their remembrances. Sergeant Mark Stewart said Deason was the epitome of a leader.

“It was a forgone conclusion if Michael Deason took the task on, it was going to get done right,” he said. “He led his men with gusto.”

Deason's platoon leader talked of the time he gave Michael a camera to record pictures of anything he might see happening while on duty in Iraq.

“Instead, it had picture after picture of Michael smiling,” he said and the crowd laughed. ‘I'm still not sure how he got all those.”

Another soldier spoke of meeting Deason at Fort Campbell, Ky. where he was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division. In Iraq, he said Deason was “like a father to me.”

“We got some new boots and they didn't get shined as well as the old ones,” he said. “I may be one of the only soldiers who ever got a one-on-one boot-shining class. They weren't as shiny as his, but I got close enough.”

Dush read Tiffany Deason's tribute to her husband in which she called him an “entertainer” and “morale booster” in his platoon and said “his face would light up every time he looked at his children.”

In letters Deason had left for Jayden, 2, and Kayler, 9 months, he wrote of his love for them and how he would always look down on them from heaven.

As “God Bless the USA” began to play, the crowd that filled the church began to come forward to pay their last respects and one by one, people in the crowd stood in tribute.

Outside more than 100 motorcycles, from the Patriot Guard Riders, were lined up to accompany the funeral procession to the cemetery. The riders stood silently - some at attention - waving flags.

As the service ended, an Honor Guard carefully placed Deason's casket inside a special hearse with glass windows, pulled by a motorcycle. Cars with flags on them joined the procession and as it traveled from the church on Washington Street, there were more flags held by dozens of people on the sides of the road. There were flags along Karsch Blvd. and Highway 67 North as the procession drove to Desloge. At the exit onto Desloge Drive, the De Soto and Farmington Fire Departments set up a huge flag and the procession traveled beneath it. The Deason family traveled with the casket as it stopped on Fir Street in Desloge where Michael grew up. The procession made its way past the cemetery where SSGT Trevor Spink, the first soldier from the Parkland to die in Iraq, is buried. Hundreds of people waving flags and signs lined Highway 8. Kids waved them from the backs of pickup trucks. Old men waved them from lawn chairs. There were flags plastered on poles, on car windows and on mailboxes.

The Patriot Guard Riders traveled with the procession in tribute and to shield the family from any protesters that might be along the way. There were none.

National Guardsmen stood at attention at the intersection of Main and Highway 8, just outside of Park Hills. A flag flew from a backhoe in Gumbo and on a hillside in Leadwood. There were signs that read, “God bless the Deason family and God Bless the USA.” There was a flag on a tractor in Frankclay and a sign in Irondale that read, “Thank you for protecting my family.” At the Big River Cemetery, three Vietnam Veterans from VFW Post 6996 in Potosi waved a flag for their fallen comrade.

At the gravesite, Rev. Dush said, “I don't know I could say anything that means more than the thousands of flags we saw on the way here. I've never seen anything like it.”

Jayden Deason climbed down from his grandpa's lap to stand near his father's casket. He looked up at the crowd of people surrounding him as Major General William Johnson presented his father's medals to his mother and each of his grandparents. A Bronze Star honored his service in the last year. A Purple Heart honored his wounds in battle. There was a ribbon for the Iraqi Campaign, a Global War on Terrorism Service medal, a Combat Action Badge and a set of his dog tags. Little Jayden returned to his mother and held the dog tags up high. The Patriot Guard gave Tiffany Deason a plaque “on behalf of a grateful America.”

The firing team from Fort Campbell offered a salute and Sgt. Jarrett Ellis played Taps. The soldiers removed the flag from the casket, folded it and gave it to Deason's widow.

Michael Deason was a 1996 graduate of North County High School and enlisted in the Army in 2000. He was on duty in Iraq when each of his children were born. With the 101st Airborne, he made the elite “Army Rangers.”

Prior to the service, David Deason, Michael's father, said he and Michael's mother, Terry Galloway, wanted to thank everyone for their kindness and support during the past week.

“So many people have done so much,” said David. “We can't thank you enough.”

Memorials for SSG Deason may be made to The Michael Deason Memorial Fund benefiting Jayden and Kayler Deason through Taylor Funeral Service., Inc., P.O. Box 12, Farmington, Mo., 63640.

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