200 turn out for airman’s funeral Lee native buried with full honors 18 days after he was found in Texas pond

LINCOLN – Frank Severance was several months into recovering from a nasty motor vehicle accident a year and a half ago when his older brother Michael, an Air Force staff sergeant home on leave from Afghanistan, took him for a ride.

The two were having fun until Michael whipped the vehicle around, heading right for a ditch just like the one Frank had wiped out in.

With some very painful and altogether too recent memories bubbling up in his mind, Frank asked, “Do you realize that I was already involved in an accident?”

“I’ll never forget what he said,” Frank Severance said. “He said, ‘Well, you’ve got to face your fears sooner or later.'”

Frank Severance remembered his late brother Thursday during burial services at Clay Funeral Home as a zestful and dedicated downhill skier, long-distance runner, hunter, stock-car racer, fisherman and military man who excelled at facing down his fears.

About 200 people, including Gov. John Baldacci, paid homage to the 24-year-old Lee native, who was awarded 13 service ribbons as a C-130 crew chief.

Severance was deployed five times overseas, including stints in Iraq and three tours of duty in Afghanistan, as a member of the 317th Airlift Maintenance Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.

A seven-member Air Force honor guard fired a rifle salute and taps was played over Severance’s coffin at Stevens Cemetery in Carroll Plantation after a funeral procession of more than 50 vehicles traced a long, lonely path near fields where Severance had played as a boy.

Severance’s body was found March 6 at the bottom of a San Angelo, Texas, pond weighted down with cinder blocks. He was reported missing by his wife, Wendi Davidson, on Jan. 16.

As of Thursday, no cause of death had been released by Texas police, who say they believe Severance is a homicide victim.

Davidson, 26, of San Angelo, was charged March 5 with tampering with evidence for hiding her husband’s body.

According to police, she told her brother she had found her husband dead in bed on Jan. 15 and feared that someone in her family had killed him. She remained held Thursday on $500,000 bail.

Baldacci presented Leslie Severance, Michael’s father, with a state flag that flew over the state Capitol at half-staff in Severance’s honor. The governor also ordered flags flown at half-staff in Carroll Plantation, Lee and Lincoln.

“Maine is a small state in terms of population,” Baldacci said after the ceremonies, “and we’re all very close to one another. When we lose someone like this, we all feel it.”

Severance, Baldacci said, was part of a long line of Maine soldiers – including Army Master Sergeant and Medal of Honor winner Gary Gordon of Lincoln, and stretching back to Civil War hero Col. Joshua Chamberlain – who served their country well in times of strife.

“It’s important to let them [the Severance family] know that we’re there for them,” Baldacci said.

The 317th’s commanding officer, Major William N. Walker, came from Texas to present Severance with a posthumous Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service, which he presented to Leslie Severance.

Severance was part of 232 peacekeeping missions whose flights had a 99 percent departure reliability rating.

Severance participated in 515 sorties and accumulated 922 flying hours as a crew chief, Walker said. Walker praised Severance’s selflessness.

“When we needed a flying crew chief to go on a mission, he was always ready to step up and take care of business,” Walker said.

The Rev. Mark W. York recalled how close Leslie Severance was to his late son, how they enjoyed a gently teasing relationship, with Leslie sometimes quietly concerned, but ultimately supportive, of Michael’s more adventurous pursuits.

Family members came from as far away as Florida, and several fellow airmen came from Texas for the funeral.

The subject of Severance’s death came up only indirectly when Frank Severance told the congregation that they do not know, and may never learn, why Severance died, “but God does not give us anything we can’t handle.

“It seems really hard right now, but if we remember Mike for the joyous stories we can tell, we can get through this,” Frank Severance said.

“The last thing I would want to say is that no matter what we’re going through right now, we know that Mike is in a better place, and that we will see him again.”