Connell Laid To Rest at Arlington Cemetery
May 28, 2007

Called an “American hero,” Army Sgt. 1st Class James David “Tiger” Connell Jr., a Lake City native killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Friday morning.

Approximately 50 people attended the ceremony, most of them relatives, according to those in attendance. Among the people who attended the morning service was U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp, R-3rd District.

“I began this Memorial Day weekend here in Washington at Arlington National Cemetery with the family of American hero Sgt. 1st Class David ‘Tiger’ Connell Jr., from Lake City, Tenn., who gave his life in the defense of liberty in Iraq,” Wamp wrote in a printed statement to the media.

“It was a very sad but very special moment in the life of our country and certainly for this family,” the U.S. representative stated.

“I assured them that our country would never forget his sacrifice and his patriotism, or his answer to the Scriptural call that ‘no greater love hath any man than to lay down his life for a friend,’” Wamp continued. “He laid his life down for people he will never meet, going even beyond the Scriptural call.

“I assured them he did not die in vain, and that every time freedom has been extended from one generation to the next, it was by people like David, who cared enough about our country and the principle of freedom to lay it all on the line.”

Connell left Lake City May 1, following a two-week leave at home. Less than two weeks later, May 12, he was killed in Iraq. The attack on two U.S. military vehicles outside of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, left Connell, three other soldiers and an Iraqi dead.

A memorial service for the 40-year-old Anderson County High School graduate was held May 20 at Clear Branch Baptist Church in Lake City. His body arrived in Anderson County last Monday and was taken Thursday by Hatmaker Funeral Home in Lake City to Virginia for the burial at Arlington.