WESTMINSTER -- More than 85 family members, friends and fellow Marines attended the funeral of Staff Sgt. Mark P. Barrette on Monday morning -- a simple, tasteful ceremony at St. Edward the Confessor Church.
"While it was not a long life that he led, it is not the length that will ultimately count," said the Rev. Terence T. Kilcoyne during the 10 a.m. Mass. "It is the quality -- the people who he loved and those who loved him."
"He loved you very deeply and you loved him very deeply as well," Kilcoyne added.
Barrette, a Marine since 1994 and Iraq War veteran, died June 8 in an off-base motorcycle accident in Anaheim, Calif. He was a town native and graduate of Oakmont Regional High School stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
"He was such a special kid," Barrette's mother, Bernadette, told the Sentinel & Enterprise in an interview last week. "He always had a good word, a smile, a joke for every occasion."
About two dozen Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcycle enthusiasts that attends veterans' funerals, escorted Barrette's family to the church and later, a burial at the Woodside Cemetery in town. Several came from far away for the service.
"It's just as touching in Arizona as it is in Massachusetts. It's an honor to be here," said Windy Airey, a 55-year-old resident of Mesa, AZ., and Southampton, N.H., whose grandfather, husband, father and son are military veterans.
Marines presented a folded American flag to Barrette's mother, Bernadette, in his honor during the burial, and fired three shots into the air before two veterans played taps.
Barrette served in Iraq for about seven months during 2004 and 2005. He had also completed tours in Iceland and Japan, and had been stationed at Camp Pendleton since 1999.
The camp's public relations unit released a statement saying, "Camp Pendleton mourns the loss of Staff Sgt. Mark Barrette, a Marine with more than 12 years of exemplary service and overseas deployments."
Kilcoyne, during the hour-long Mass, recalled Barrette's baptism in December 1974, which he described as "a happy day, as all baptisms are."
"We pray for many things at a baptism -- health, happiness, long life," Kilcoyne said inside the sun-filled church. "But we never know how long that life is going to last."
None of Barrette's family members spoke during the Mass, which focused on prayers and hymns. State Rep. Lewis G. Evangelidis, a Holden Republican whose district includes Westminster, was among those in attendance.
Everyone at the ceremony sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" shortly before the Mass' conclusion.
"Mark honored us with 13 years of service in the Marines," Kilcoyne said, introducing the song. "We now honor him for that service."
