Antioch soldier laid to rest

Announced by the roar of dozens of motorcycles in the vanguard, the motorcade bearing U.S. Army Sgt. John Aragon rolled through Antioch Monday, stretching for blocks.

The 2004 Antioch High School graduate, killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq June 12 while serving with the 101st Airborne Division, was carried in a silver-and-black coffin emblazoned with the name and logo of his beloved Oakland Raiders. He was 22.

Groups of somber-faced people waved flags from the street corners as the procession passed on its way to Holy Cross Cemetery from Holy Rosary Parish, where Fr. Francisco Vicente had conducted Mass and offered words of comfort from his own, intimate perspective.

"I am the priest who gave John his First Communion at the tender age of 8," he said. "I am the priest who said a special blessing for him before he left to join the Army."

Vicente said that, like everyone, he was "shocked and disoriented" by Aragon's death. He likened the feeling to the sudden loss of electricity, when "Everything stops. The TV goes blank and the radio goes silent, the cook (stove) goes cold. Worst of all, the lights go out and you're plunged into darkness."

And it's a feeling you can't be ready for.

"There's nothing that can prepare you for something like this," he said. "Not your education, not your upbringing, not your experience," Vicente said. "God can do anything, but he won't take away our freedom" to act on our own, he said. Aragon had acted "because freedom was in danger. He put himself in harm's way so people might be free."

Vicente then asked that the darkness be lit "from the window to heaven," before ending the service with "John, we salute you."

The audience, hundreds strong, was accented by the crisp dress uniforms of many branches of the armed services as well as the mournful, stoic faces of Aragon's mother, Denise; father, John Sr.; sisters, Christina and Brianna; and other family members.

The family walked slowly behind the flag-draped coffin as it was carried outside, while the engines of the Patriot Guard, Patriot Sentinel Riders and American Legion Riders motorcycles thundered to life for the journey to Holy Cross.

The hearse, followed by the stretch Humvee limousine bearing the family, then rolled slowly down "A" Street toward the cemetery beneath muted, smoky skies, past the saddened flag wavers, and into a future forever changed.

Aragon is the second serviceman from Antioch to die in Iraq. Sgt. Daniel Scheile, 37, was killed by a roadside bomb in September 2005. Scheile was with the 184th Infantry of the Army National Guard's 1st Battalion.