By Greg Jonsson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
FLORISSANT, Mo. — Firefighters who worked with Christopher G. Walsh and those who never knew him but still considered him a brother honored the St. Louis Fire Department emergency medical technician at a memorial service Monday.
A procession of fire department ambulances drew onlookers to the roads as they headed to St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Church in Florissant. Firefighters marched into the church to the beat of a drum and the sound of bagpipes. Afterward, a 21-gun salute and candlelight vigil honored the Navy corpsman, who was killed in Iraq on Labor Day, Sept. 4.
“He served the city of St. Louis well, and he served his country well,” St. Louis Fire Chief Sherman George said in an interview. “He’s a young man who died too young.”
Walsh’s family was presented with the highest award given to St. Louis firefighters and other honors before a memorial Mass. A similar service was held in Kansas, where Walsh grew up, earlier this month.
Friends said Walsh volunteered to go to Iraq because that’s where he felt he could help and learn the most.
“He did what he wanted to do,” said Mark Waller, a firefighter-paramedic with the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District. “He’s always wanted to go and serve his country.”
Walsh was killed when a bomb blew up near his convoy during combat operations in Anbar province. He was attached to a Marine unit, doing work similar to his role as an EMT in St. Louis.