Laid to Rest
By Kate Schott - City Editor
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| Members of the funeral honors team based at Crestwood and North Riverside armories of the Illinois National Guard carry the casket of Spc. Ashley Sietsema to her burial plot at Fairview Park Cemetery in DeKalb on Sunday afternoon. The 20-year-old Army health care specialist and ambulance driver died Nov. 12 as a result of injuries suffered in a single-vehicle accident while conducting a routine medical transfer of a patient in Kuwait. Chronicle photo ERIC SUMBERG |
DeKALB — Olivia Segura stepped out of a silver four-door Nissan Sentra and took in the 50-plus people standing in the back of Ronan-Moore-Finch Funeral Home on Sunday morning.
If they felt the cold in the air and the biting wind, the men and women holding American flags didn’t show it. They stood at attention — many with tears sliding down their faces — to show respect for the mother of a fallen U.S. soldier.
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“Thank you for being here for my daughter,” Olivia Segura said tearfully. “Thank you.”
Segura, of DeKalb, arrived at the funeral home around 9:45 a.m. Sunday with family members to say goodbye to her daughter, Ashley Sietsema.
Ashley, who was in the Illinois National Guard, died Nov. 12 at age 20 as a result of injuries suffered in a single-vehicle accident while conducting a routine medical transfer of a patient from Camp Buehring to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. With the time difference, Americans were commemorating Veterans Day when Ashley died.
The noon funeral service was followed by burial with full military honors at Fairview Park Cemetery. Members of local veterans groups, Boy Scout troops and area residents lined up outside the funeral home in the morning, and then along the entrance of the cemetery in the afternoon, to show support for Ashley’s family.
Ashley was an Army health care specialist and ambulance driver assigned to the 708th Medical Company in North Riverside. Ashley, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of specialist, was deployed to Kuwait on Sept. 3 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the Illinois National Guard.
Her life was full of promise, her family and friends said. She married Max Sietsema in April. She had been enrolled at Northern Illinois University prior to being deployed, and hoped to become a nurse.
During a brief statement outside the funeral home Sunday, Ashley’s aunt, Nadia McKensie, said her niece had shown her love of helping others by volunteering at church and helping her family.
“Her love for volunteering is what led her to proudly serve her country in the Illinois National Guard two years ago. We are proud of the woman Ashley became and so is her husband, Max, who she married this spring,” she said, stumbling slightly over her words as her voice filled with emotion and she started to cry. “She is truly our hero and will always be in our hearts.”
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American flags at state buildings throughout Illinois were lowered to half-staff from sunrise Saturday through sunset Monday, as ordered by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in honor of Ashley. Other flags in DeKalb, such as the ones outside the Veterans of Foreign Wars building, Ronan-Moore-Finch Funeral home and Fairview Park Cemetery, also were lowered.
Ashley is the 16th casualty the Illinois National Guard has suffered since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began, and its fourth female casualty, according to the Illinois National Guard.
She is the second National Guard member from DeKalb County to die during the current conflicts. First Lt. Brian Slavenas of Genoa was 30 when he died Nov. 2, 2003, when the helicopter he was piloting was shot down near Fallujah, Iraq.
Ron Slavenas, Brian’s father, was one of the many area veterans to stand with a flag outside the funeral home Sunday.
“My heart goes out to the family,” the 70-year-old Genoa resident said. “I think the family needs a lot of support. I received a lot of support myself when I went through my crisis. I just wanted to be another body here to show respect.”
He’d like to eventually talk to Ashley’s family — when the time is right. He’d tell the family to be strong.
“You have to go on,” he said quietly. “That’s all you can do, live with the memories. Reach out to other people. If you have faith, cling to your faith.”
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Ashley’s death is tough for Paul Kallembach, District 19 commander for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Department of Illinois.
Kallembach met Ashley in June, shortly before she was deployed to the Middle East, as he helped lead a seminar in North Riverside on the Military Assistance Program, a service of the VFW.
She was a bubbly, vibrant girl, Kallembach recalled, a young, patriotic woman who had goals and directions for her life.
“I told her that the greatest thing about going was coming home,” he said quietly Saturday night as he sat in the back room of the VFW building in DeKalb and talked about when he met Ashley.
“I told her, ‘Ashley, things are going to be great once you come home.’ I knew that she would ... I assured her family she would be OK,” he said, his voice breaking and tears slipping from his eyes. “She was a smart girl, a survivor, and I knew she would be fine.”
Ashley smiled and hugged him, Kallembach recalled, and said she’d see him when she came home.
“My words were ... ‘Yep, I’m looking forward to it,’” he said. “But not like this.”
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Ashley’s remains arrived at DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport around 10:30 a.m. Saturday under a gray, overcast sky, accompanied by a drizzling rain.
Ten minutes prior to the plane touching down, several carloads of family members arrived and were ushered by a DeKalb Police officer into the airport building, where military and veterans representatives were already waiting.
A procession of at least 15 vehicles slowly left the airport at 10:55 a.m. Saturday, led by DeKalb Police, followed by three vehicles from the DeKalb Fire Department and the Patriot Guard, a vehicle from the funeral home and a white hearse.
People walking on the sidewalk stopped as the procession drove slowly through the streets of DeKalb, from the airport at Peace Road and Pleasant Street to the funeral home at Oak and Third streets. Outside the VFW building on Oak Street, members stood at attention as the hearse went by.
Another procession started before 9 a.m. Sunday as vehicles carrying loved ones pulled up at Ronan-Moore-Finch Funeral Home. The sun intermittently peeked through clouds late Sunday morning as family and friends came to pay respects to Ashley. They filed into the funeral home to console each other during the two-hour visitation that started at 10 a.m., then to attend the noon funeral service.
The mourners then proceeded to the cemetery — a 75-plus-vehicle procession that went south on Annie Glidden Road before crossing over on Fairview Drive and then into the cemetery.
They drove past at least a hundred people silently holding flags along the entrance to the cemetery and made their way to the burial plot, where a handful of chairs were set up under a blue awning.
They started at the sound of a 21-gun salute and wiped away tears as “Taps” was played by two buglers.
Olivia Segura cried in the arms of her husband, Alberto, as the casket carrying her daughter’s body was wheeled from the hearse to the plot.
She solemnly accepted the folded flag that had been draped over Ashley’s coffin and grasped the hand of Maureen Deahl as Deahl’s son, Max Sietsema, was given a flag as well. She cried again as the casket was lowered into the ground.
After the service ended, some in attendance grabbed a handful of dirt to throw on Ashley’s grave. Others just left, with their arms around each other.
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Daily Chronicle Staff Writer Dana Herra contributed to this report.
Kate Schott can be reached at kschott@daily-chronicle.com.
