Rest in Peace Cpl Ledsome

Sunday December 3, 2006
News

Cpl. Ledsome remembered with fondness

By Candace Cooksey Fulton — Brownwood Bulletin

When concerns were raised about the danger of being a Marine fighting in Iraq, Cpl. Craig Ledsome had an answer.
“Come what may,” was the Marine’s philosophy. Eight days ago, Cpl. Ledsome’s exacting definition of what that could mean came. He was killed Nov. 25, 2006, during combat operations in Al Anbar province in Iraq.
“That was the way he looked at it,” Mike Ledsome, Craig’s father, said on Friday. “That’s what he told Brad, his brother. ‘Come what may.’”
Cpl. Ledsome’s uncle, Brian Smith, wrote in a memoir that he had known Craig Ledsome all of his life.
“I remember him driving a golf ball straighter and further than a grown man before he could spell the word ‘golf’,” Smith said.
And Smith remembered and respected his nephew for his adherence for doing what was right.
“He put himself in a place few will ever know because he thought it was right,” Smith said.
“He gave himself to a cause that he believed in because he thought it was right.”
Saturday during a family visitation, friends and family recalled over and over Craig Ledsome as a boy growing up, his mischievous smile and affinity for fun. Pictures showed he and brother Brad, cousins and little sister Alex. His Brownwood letter jacket jogged memories of his outstanding varsity golf team days. There were family wedding pictures of Ledsome and his bride Megan, and pictures of Craig, Megan and their son, Caelub, now 2.
“One of the saddest parts of all of this is that Craig won’t live to be the wonderful father he would have been,” said Ledsome’s maternal grandmother, Joan Smith. “Caelub was a pure joy to him.”
Local services for the 2000 Brownwood High School graduate are set for 2 p.m. today at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church.
Davis-Morris Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements and funeral director Brandon Blaylock said Cpl. Ledsome will lie in repose in the funeral home chapel with Marines standing watch from 8 a.m. until noon today.
After the service at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church, Cpl. Ledsome’s body will be taken to Cook-Walden Funeral Home in Austin for a second service, and then burial.
The Military and Family Support Group members and others are asking citizens to “line the streets to show our love and support for the family” as the procession travels toward the Austin destination.
Debbie Morelock, organizing the path of honor for the procession, has asked any and all who are able to find a place along the route to stand by 3 p.m.
Supporters are also asked to bring flags or other patriotic posters or signs of support.
The route for the procession to leave for Austin will be from Coggin Avenue, to Austin Avenue, to Main (Highway 377 North), along Commerce and Early Boulevard to Highway 183 at the light in Early.
Morelock said other communities between Brownwood and Austin have been alerted and will also show support for those riding in the funeral procession.
“We will always love Craig and we will always miss him,” Brian Smith signed off on his memorial tribute.
“My son was a great patriot and a very honorable man,” said Mike Ledsome. “I’m 44 and I’ll never achieve the manhood my son did. He was a hero to me. He is a hero to this community. He is a hero for our country.”

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/12/03/news/news01.txt
---------------------
Monday December 4, 2006

News

Saying farewell to a hero

By Candace Cooksey Fulton — Brownwood Bulletin

Craig Ledsome died a hero.

But at his funeral Sunday, U.S. Marine Cpl. Ledsome was remembered for the qualities that made him a hero.

“He was my best buddy,” said Dustin D’Amalfi, who became Ledsome’s friend several years ago when the two were both working at the Balcones Country Club in Austin. “Craig was loving, honest, charismatic, kind and outright hilarious. He was the funniest, bravest, kindest man I’ve ever known.

“He was a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, an athlete, teacher, role model, husband and father,” D’Amalfi said. “He was a Marine. And he was a hero.”

D’Amalfi remembered for the approximately 300 mourners filling Coggin Avenue Baptist Church for the full military service that the first time Ledsome ever saw the pretty blonde named Megan, he announced she was the girl he was going to marry.

“It was so fun to see two people so in love,” D’Amalfi said.

Then he recalled an even more joyous announcement, when Ledsome called and said “Dude, I’m going to be a daddy,” and the day of Caelub’s birth.

Ledsome was killed Nov. 25, 2006, during combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Family friend and service officiant Scottye Ratliff also hailed the man he’d known since he was a “burr-headed boy” as an American hero.

And to Ledsome’s brother and fellow Marine, Cpl. Brad Ledsome, Ratliff said, “Brad, you honor that with your life.”

Megan Ledsome, he said, had called her husband her Prince Charming.

“He was my very best friend,” Ratliff quoted the widow as saying.

And he explained, “Megan was the love of Craig’s life and Caelub was the light of his world.”

The “burr-headed boy” had been an all-American kid who loved to hunt, fish and be a kid, though he may have loved golf more than anything.

He was an outstanding golfer for Brownwood High School and had gone on to become the golf pro at Balcones Country Club.

He had grown up to be “a great patriot and a very honorable man ... who died doing something he believed was right,” Mike Ledsome, the Ledsomes’ father, said last week.

“When you saw Craig, all you saw was the smile on his face,” Ratliff said at the Sunday service.

The three times that smile was the happiest, Ratliff quoted Mike Ledsome as saying, was the day Craig married Megan; the day Caelub was born; and a slightly distant third, the day Craig beat Mike Ledsome at golf.

Ratliff also shared that Mike Ledsome had said his son always had a desire to fix things. D’Amalfi said Craig Ledsome wanted very much for the people he loved to love each other. In the week since his death, Ratliff said, the family separated through the years by divorce and quarreling had unified in their grief.

“Craig helped fix our family,” Ratliff said Mike Ledsome had said.

Ratliff concluded his eulogy with the quote family members said Craig Ledsome used so often.

“Come what may.”

“It meant, for Craig, ‘my life is in God’s hands. What happens, happens.’ He was at peace with that,” Ratliff said.

The hour-long service Sunday honoring Ledsome —who was born 25 years ago today and grew up in Brownwood, graduating with the Brownwood High School class of 2000 — was the first of two services.

From the church, Ledsome’s flag-draped casket was carried to Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Blvd. in Austin. The family will receive friends there from 5 to 7 p.m. today and services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Colonial Chapel of the funeral home. Burial will follow at Cook-Walden Forest Oaks Memorial Park in Austin.

Following the Sunday service, hundreds from the community lined the streets, waving flags and showing support. The hearse bearing Ledsome’s body and the procession of family members were escorted by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.

“The family is so very grateful for the outpouring of support this community has shown Cpl. Ledsome,” said Joyce Leidig with the Military and Family Support Group. “But Cpl. Ledsome deserves to be honored. He died serving our country. I am so proud so many have honored him as they have.”

Leidig said arrangements for fire departments and law enforcement personnel in all the communities from Brownwood to Lampasas had been made, and she said they would also honor the family and those in the procession as it passed through their locales.

Cpl. Craig Ledsome’s survivors include his wife and son, Megan and Caelub Ledsome; his parents, Tammy and Kevin Eoff of Early and Mike and Shawna Ledsome of Weatherford; brother, Cpl. Brad Ledsome of Okinawa, Japan; sister, Alex Ledsome of Ashland, Ore.; grandparents Richard and Joan Smith, Keith and Joann Ledsome, G.W. and Una May Eoff and Chris Webber and Debbie Crow.

source: http://www.brownwoodbulletin.com/articles/2006/12/04/news/news01.txt
-------------------------
Fallen Marine
Hundreds turn out for memorial in Brownwood

By Celinda Emison / emisonc@reporternews.com
December 4, 2006

Cpl. Michael Craig Ledsome was described as loving, honest, charismatic and, most of all, a hero, during a memorial service in Brownwood Sunday.

More than 300 people attended the service at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church.

Ledsome, 24, of Austin was killed Saturday in Iraq during combat operations in Al Anbar province on Nov. 25. Today would have been his 25th birthday.

During the service his father, Mike Ledsome, read a poem to his son.

''If you listen with your heart, you'll hear ... all of my love around, so soft and clear...'' the elder Ledsome read.

He then thanked everyone at the funeral for coming, put down his son's Marine photo, and ran his hand across the flag draping the coffin.

During the service, Ledsome's best friend and co-worker, Dustin D'Amalfi of Austin, described him as a genuinely happy person who loved his wife Megan and son Caelub.

''They completed him,'' he said.

D'Amalfi, who worked with him at the Balcones Country Club in Austin, said Ledsome was the ''funniest, bravest and kindest man I've ever had the pleasure to meet.''

Scottye Ratliff, who officiated at the service, comforted Ledsome's parents Tammy and Kevin Eoff of Early and Mike and Shawna Ledsome of Weatherford.

''His mother (Tammy Eoff) said Craig never found anything bad to say about anyone,'' Ratliff said.

Ratliff also comforted his brother, Cpl. Brad Ledsome, 21, who was home on leave from Okinawa, Japan.

''Craig and Brad enlisted together because they believed in a purpose,'' Ratliff said. ''Life, community and country.''

Ratliff shared the fact that Ledsome had been injured several weeks ago, when the Humvee he was driving hit a land mine. After that, he said, Ledsome called his father Mike and told him he ''didn't feel like he would be coming home.''

Ledsome was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the Pentagon said. He was deployed to Iraq four months ago.

Ledsome, was a 2000 graduate of Brownwood High School and played on the golf team. After graduation, he moved to Austin, where he worked in the pro shop at Balcones Country Club.

Ledsome leaves behind a wife, Megan, and their 2-year-old son, Caelub. He is also survived by his maternal grandparents Richard and Joan Smith of Early and his paternal grandparents Keith and Joanne Ledsome of Lake Brownwood.

The family of Lance Cpl. Mario Castillo, who was killed in June 2005, attended the service Sunday. Castillo's father, Guadalupe, wore a pin with a photo of his son and his dog tags during the service. Later, the family gathered at the corner of Austin Avenue and Lance Cpl. Mario A. Castillo Memorial Street, to wave as the funeral procession passed by.

The Castillo family was among the hundreds of people from Brownwood and Early who lined the streets Sunday afternoon to wave flags to honor Ledsome as family and friends proceeded on to Austin, where a second funeral will be held Tuesday as well as the burial.

Members of several veterans and Christian motorcycle organizations escorted the procession, holding large American flags.

Supporters were expected to line the streets in Zephyr and Goldthwaite as the family traveled through on the way to Austin.

Ratliff summed up the feelings of the family at the end of the service.

''The family has felt more love from family and community today, and they are thankful for that,'' Ratliffsaid.

Funeral Service

When: 10 a.m. Tuesday

Where: Colonial Chapel at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Blvd., Austin

For more information call: Cook-Walden at (512) 454-5611

Burial follows in Cook-Walden Forest Oaks Memorial Park, 6300 William Cannon West, Austin

Memorials to go to the Ledsome Memorial Fund - contributions can be made at any branch of Bank of America.

MEMORIALS
Memorials to go to the Ledsome Memorial Fund - contributions can be made at any branch of Bank of America.
EDITED BY: PATTI STEELE; COPY EDITED BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN; HEADLINE BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN

source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_obituaries/article/0,1874,ABIL_7967_5188670,00.html