March 30, 2024
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Mourners lay Maine soldier to rest

WATERVILLE – Love and loss were etched in the faces of the family and friends of Lynn Robert Poulin as the remains of the Army staff sergeant killed by a suicide bomb attack in Iraq days before Christmas were laid to rest Thursday with military honors.

An estimated 1,000 mourners filled Notre Dame Catholic Church for Poulin’s funeral Mass. The church was still wrapped in its holiday decorations.

Gov. John Baldacci, the state’s congressional delegation, other public officials and hundreds of others sat among uniformed men and women, veterans and civilians, who came to pay their respects to the Freedom man.

“We are united in our love for a man who touched us in great ways and small,” the Rev. Philip Tracy told the congregation.

Thursday broke cloudy but bright sunlight streamed into the church as Poulin’s flag-draped coffin was placed before the altar by Army pallbearers in full dress. Hymns echoed through the nave, and candles flickered on an altar filled with flowers. The white-gloved bearers remained at attention throughout the service, clutching folded U.S. flags.

At the conclusion of the service, Poulin’s mother, Therese, his father, Bertrand, and his wife, Jeanne, were presented with the flags that either flew over the State House or draped the coffin of the 23-year Army veteran. Along with his wife and parents, Poulin left three sons, one daughter and three sisters. He also left a best friend, brother-in-law and many uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and in-laws.

Poulin, 47, was killed Dec. 21 after an explosion in a mess tent in Mosul, Iraq. He was deployed with the Maine-based 133rd Engineer Battalion when it shipped out to Iraq last February. The blast killed 14 Americans, including 20-year-old Spc. Thomas John Dostie of Somerville. His funeral is 11 a.m. today at Erskine Academy in South China. Ten other Maine soldiers were wounded in the Mosul attack.

Poulin was a welder at Bath Iron Works, and those skills served him well in his military life. Army Chaplain Maj. Andy Gibson said at the service Thursday that many of the photographs of Poulin sent from Iraq showed him welding armor to make the vehicles of his comrades more resistant to the daily onslaught of bombs and grenades.

“Lynn was a doer who shared his self and his skills so that others might be free,” Gibson said. “That’s what he was dedicated to doing.”

Gibson noted that Poulin often told his family that he would “rather die doing his duty” than return home in a condition where he would be a burden to them. He said Poulin strongly believed in helping others.

Reading from a poem selected by the family, Gibson emphasized the stanza, “Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die.”

Gibson asked the family and those attending the service to look beyond their grief and “never forget those who still serve to bring freedom to a land without it.”

During the funeral Mass, Tracy urged the congregation to “open our hearts fully” in honor of “our fallen brother.”

Tracy described Poulin as a quiet man who enjoyed the simple things of life, a man who loved his family and believed in doing his duty and serving his cause. He said those he left behind must try to overcome the “emptiness that comes when someone we dearly love is no longer with us.”

Tracy asked them to affirm that “there are things worth believing in and worth sacrificing our lives for.”

He also asked the congregation to remember and celebrate Poulin’s life, because to do so would enable them to “believe in the world as he saw the world and that his sacrifice was not in vain. … His way of life had value. His way of sacrificing for the good of the many was important.”

Poulin joined the Army in 1981 and served three years in Germany. He joined the National Guard when he returned home and served with A Company of the 262nd Battalion. He joined the 133rd in 1993. In the Guard he served as a machine gunner and rifleman and also as a truck driver and metal worker.

He grew up in a log cabin in Freedom and graduated from Mount View High School in Thorndike. He and his wife, Jeanne, lived a short distance up the road from the family log cabin.

The military portion of the service began with a song composed and sung by Pfc. Scott DeRaps titled, “They’re the Soldiers.” People clutched tissues and tears flowed freely as DeRaps, strumming a guitar, sang the saga of the 133rd and the depth of anguish he felt when comrades in arms fell in battle.

“They are the soldiers, the red, white and blue,” went the refrain. “Made up of people, like me and you.”

Before concluding the service, Gibson summoned Sgt. Maj. Greg Small to present the family with posthumous medals and promotions issued to Poulin by the Army and President Bush. Poulin was promoted to staff sergeant and awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service and giving the “ultimate sacrifice.”

He was also awarded a Purple Heart, for wounds received in action, the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service and the Good Conduct Medal for exemplary behavior. Poulin’s mother was given a Gold Star by a representative of the Gold Star Mothers, the national group whose spouses or children are killed in war.

“He is a credit to his country, his state, the Maine National Guard and the U.S. Army,” Gibson said. “He will be greatly missed by us all.”

As the honor guard prepared to remove Poulin’s remains from the church, his mother approached the coffin and placed her hand on the polished wood in a last goodbye to her son.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE POULIN FAMILY

Lynn Robert Poulin


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