Mourners gather in Harvey to bid soldier farewell

Just outside the parlor of a Harvey funeral home where Pfc. Brian Bates' flag-draped casket was set, a television monitor flashed a series of photographs, highlighting moments in a life cut short.

As a toddler, sitting on Santa's lap. An excited youngster displaying baskets of candy on Easter morning. A boy riding a bike with training wheels. Posing with his younger brother, Zachery. And images of a new father, a newlywed and a newly minted soldier.

On Friday, Bates, 20, was laid to rest in a service replete with military honors and the presentation to his family of a slew of medals, including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

"He was amazing," said his widow, Enjolie Bates, as she looked out for their two cherub-faced toddlers, Rylie, 2 1/2, and Braiden, 1 1/2. "He was a great father, a great husband. I talked to him every day, twice a day."

Bates, who enlisted in the Army less than a year ago, was killed Oct. 27 in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in the deadliest month of the war in Afghanistan.

A member of the 2nd Infantry Division's 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Bates was the driver of a 19-ton, eight-wheel armored personnel carrier called a Stryker.

While on patrol, insurgents attacked the Stryker with an improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb. Bates and seven fellow soldiers were killed.

On Friday, family and friends gathered at Mothe Funeral Home to pay their respects and remember the young man "for his courage and his dedication to our country," said New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who blessed the coffin with holy water and presided over Mass.

Aymond asked the audience to pray for Bates and his comrades, as well as the 12 soldiers and a civilian who were shot dead Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas.

"He would want us to remember them," Aymond said.

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