FORT WORTH -- Navy corpsman Clayton R. Beauchamp's body returned to his hometown today, escorted by a long procession of vehicles and motorcycles and saluted along the roads by hundreds of service members, police and firefighters.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Beauchamp, 21, killed by a roadside bomb on Aug. 7 while on patrol in Afghanistan, will be buried Saturday at Memory Gardens of the Valley Memorial Park in Weatherford.Funeral services are at 2 p.m. Saturday at North Side Baptist Church in Weatherford.The casket carrying Beauchamp flew from Dover, Del., to Naval Air Station Fort Worth this morning, where it was transferred by a Navy honor guard to a hearse.The white hearse left the base for Weatherford with dozens of emergency vehicles and motorcyclists from groups such as the Patriot Guard. Firefighters, sheriff's deputies and police in Parker County lined the roads in Weatherford.Beauchamp was serving as a corpsman in 1st Battalion, 1st Marines when he was killed. He was just a few weeks into his first combat deployment. His older brother, also a sailor serving in Afghanistan, escorted his body home.Marine Lt. Col. Scott Luckie, an AV-8B Harrier and V-22 Osprey pilot who is assigned to NAS Fort Worth, brought his wife and four children to the gates of the base, even though they were on vacation."This is the proper way to pay our respects," Luckie said.Also standing outside the gates was Marion Buckner, whose grandson, Army Pfc. Austin Staggs, was killed in Afghanistan on Nov. 29, 2010. She wore a baby-blue T-shirt with his picture."Austin and Clayton were friends in high school," she said, both of them having graduated in 2009.She said her family would help the Beauchamps any way they could in the coming months."The next few days are going to be so hard," she said. "But really it doesn't seem to get any easier."For more information, go to www.whitesfuneralhomes.com.Chris Vaughn, 817-390-7547Twitter: @CVaughnFWHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
