Man beheaded in Iraq honored at memorial service

<p>Eugene Armstrong's family and friends remembered him Tuesday as an adventurous man who traveled to spots across the globe and enjoyed riding motorcycles and fishing for bass.</p><p>Armstrong, a former Hillsdale-area resident who was beheaded in Iraq last month, was honored at a memorial service attended by about 200 people.</p><p>Some came dressed in business attire, others in blue jeans, but all in attendance at the hour-long service at Hillsdale College wore yellow ribbons in memory of the man they called Jack.</p><p>Rick Gamber thanked the community for the outpouring of support since his cousin's death on Sept. 20.</p><p>"Jack's death was an act of hideous, unspeakable evil," Gamber said. "If there is any ray of hope, it is the recognition that one act of evil could lead so many people in Hillsdale County and throughout the world to react with moral outrage."</p><p>Armstrong, 52, was taken hostage and was shown being executed by Islamic militants on a video posted on a Web site. The militants also beheaded Armstrong's colleague, Jack Hensley of Marietta, Ga. A Briton, Kenneth Bigley, still was being held.</p><p>The three men, who were working for the construction firm Gulf Services Co., were kidnapped from a house they shared in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood.</p><p>Jill Cleveland's husband, Brian, is serving with the National Guard in Iraq. She pinned a yellow ribbon and a picture of him to her blouse.</p><p>"Right now, I'm not only coming for Mr. Armstrong, but for my husband too," said Cleveland, a 42-year-old Hillsdale resident who attended the service with her 15-year-old son William.</p><p>Before friends and a few family members talked about Armstrong, a Hillsdale College choir sang the "Star Spangled Banner." People sitting in the rows of white folding chairs in the college's gymnasium and others standing on the stage decorated with white flowers and red, white and blue bunting recited the Pledge of Allegiance.</p><p>Ken Lautzenheiser, chairman of the Hillsdale Board of Commissioners, struggled to welcome people to the service.</p><p>"It's a little emotional _ quite emotional," he said, his voice breaking.</p><p>Armstrong's friend, Mike Miller, recalled his friend's enthusiasm and big smile. Miller listed the places Armstrong lived and worked, including Africa, Angola, Thailand, Portugal and Spain.</p><p>"Since he was multi-talented, he wanted more out of life than the endless cycle of short-term jobs he worked here in the U.S.A. He needed more," Miller said.</p><p>He added: "Jack would want me to tell you not to grieve for him, but to celebrate his rebirth. We should rather grieve for ... the terrorists lost to themselves and without intelligence engaged in unbeneficial, horrible works."</p><p>State Rep. Bruce Caswell, R-Hillsdale, recalled his thoughts when he saw the videotape of Armstrong's captors.</p><p>"I've got to tell you the thoughts that went through my mind when I saw the murderers standing behind Jack and the other two men as they read their statements _ evil, evil versus good," Caswell said. "Maybe God took Jack from us in the manner that he did so that we could all be reminded of what a true and great American is like."</p><p>"I pray that he did not die in vain," the Rev. Don Harkey, pastor of Cambria Baptist Church in Hillsdale said near the end of the service. "The blood of this good man, I pray, will flow into a river of freedom and help wake our world to the reality that we're at war."</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/10/159463