Hundreds line NW Ind. streets for fallen guardsman

GARY, Ind. — Hundreds of people lined the streets of northwest Indiana to pay their respects to an Indiana National Guard soldier killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.

The Times of Munster reports the body of 21-year-old Sgt. Brian J. Leonhardt of Merrillville arrived at the Gary airport on Monday and was escorted to the Memory Lane Funeral Home in Schererville. Hundreds of students from the Hammond Baptist Schools were among those lining up to pay their respects.

John Mathewson, who works at the school and attended the school with Leonhardt, said his friend would have been proud.

“He would have loved every bit of it,” Mathewson said.

A wake for Leonhardt is scheduled for 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the First Baptist Church of Hammond.

Leonhardt was one of four Indiana National Guard soldiers from the Valparaiso-based 713th Engineering Company killed Jan. 6 in an explosion in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. On Sunday, Gov. Mitch Daniels and hundreds of others attended a funeral in North Judson, 55 miles southwest of South Bend, for Spc. Robert Tauteris Jr., 44, of Hamlet. WSBT-TV reports Tauteris was remembered by family and friends as a quiet person who would do anything for anybody.

Daniels described him as the best a state could hope for in a citizen.

“Some deaths seem to also enlarge us and uplift us by showing us the kind of better people we could be, if we’re wise enough to take that example,” Daniels said.

Tauteris was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Services also are planned later in the week for the other two guardsmen killed.

Visitation for Staff Sgt. Jonathan M. Metzger, 32, of Indianapolis will be held 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at G.H. Herrmann Funeral Home in Greenwood. A funeral service will be held 1 p.m. Friday at the Indian Creek Christian Church in Indianapolis.

Visitation for Spc. Christopher A. Patterson, 20, Aurora, Ill., will be 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Batavia, Ill. A funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday at the church.