Tooele community gathers to honor fallen Grantsville soldier

TOOELE — Pfc. Jordan Byrd wasn't on this earth very long. But in his nearly two decades of life, he touched an entire community.

On Friday that community mourned his loss and laid him to rest.

Hundreds of people turned out — some lined the streets of Tooele; many others gathered in the LDS Church's Tooele South Stake Center — to celebrate his life and remember the heroic efforts of their native son.

Byrd, a 19-year-old Army medic with the 101st Airborne from Grantsville, was shot and killed in Afghanistan on Oct. 13 while trying to aid a wounded soldier. He had been in Afghanistan for only three weeks when he responded to a downed soldier and was struck by a sniper's bullet near the Pakistan border.

While many cried, just as many told heartwarming, cheerful stories of how Byrd touched their lives and how sorely he'll be missed.

Within a half mile of the chapel, scores of American flags decorated the streets in his honor. Hundreds more residents — many with American flags and signs expressing thanks to the young soldier — lined the procession route to the cemetery in Grantsville.

Byrd's death seems to touch everyone who hears the story of the young man whose baby boy was born just last month.

Gov. Gary Herbert came to support the family Friday, as well as many state, county and local leaders, including military and police.

During the funeral, family and friends spoke fondly of Byrd's fun-loving, joyful spirit and how profoundly he touched their lives.

"Jordan always made it a point to make everything fun no matter where you were or what you were doing," his cousin Kylee Dalton told the standing-room-only audience in the stake center.

Dalton drew hearty laughs several times during her remarks, including her retelling of how Jordan invented a new game when they were kids.

"When he was 12 or 13 … one night after dinner my mom had asked him to take the empty milk carton out to the garbage," she recounted. "Jordan picked up the carton and threw it at me and yelled 'You touched it last!' and took off running. I hurried and picked it up and threw it at my sister, said 'You touched it last!' and booked it down the hall."

She said it quickly turned into a unique game of tag that the family would play together for years to come.