HYRUM, Cache County — Cache Valley buried a fallen soldier on Wednesday, with flags at half-staff and streets lined in red, white and blue.

Hundreds of mourners filled a Hyrum chapel Wednesday to pay their last respects to Cpl. Micheal Boyd Alleman, a former Nibley school teacher who was killed in Iraq on Feb. 23.

The mourners' ranks were bolstered by the Patriot Guard Riders, dozens of uniformed military servicemen and ROTC cadets. They joined Alleman's family and friends in a service that was both humorous and reverent, paying tribute to a "quiet, unassuming and private man" who loved his family deeply and, in the words of his mother Susan Alleman, "truly left this world with no regrets."

"I have never witnessed a marriage this beautiful or complete," she said of her son's relationship with his wife, Amy Alleman. "Micheal's little family is his life."

Honoring a man who enlisted in the U.S. Army willingly — leaving his students and family behind to "fulfill a higher purpose" — Alleman's loved ones paid tribute to him as a deep thinker who gave his life for the cause of freedom.

"He was always working two or three jobs to provide for his family," said Eric Stauffer. "When he joined the Army, he was answering a call to provide for all of us."

"Your dad is a hero, not just as a soldier, but as a human being," he told Alleman's boys, 6-year-old Kai and 4-year-old Kennet.

"I will miss everything about him," said his wife of seven years, smiling bravely. "We used to joke that I'm the pink in our house of camo, but there was never one harsh word spoken between us."

"Like his mother said, Micheal didn't join the Army to become a hero. Micheal became a hero because of his bravery and selfless service, for making the ultimate sacrifice," she said.

According to a Department of Defense report, Alleman was serving in Balad, a U.S. logistics hub about an hour north of Baghdad. He was one of three soldiers killed by enemy insurgents during an ambush attack where small-arms fire was exchanged.

Alleman "could have been anywhere in the Army, could have done anything he wanted to do," said his mother. "And he was. The injustice in the world was unsettling to him, and he and Amy made the decision together that Iraq was where he needed to be."

Speaking of their deep faith and commitment to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Amy Alleman said she believed God had a hand in Michael's decision to join the Army, and in preparing their family for his loss.