'Had that big smile'
Army Ranger from Manhasset killed in Iraq remembered at funeral as fun-loving man who wanted to 'make everyone around him happy'
BY DANIEL MASSEY - Newsday 2/17/07Before his last deployment to Iraq, Army Sgt. James Regan selected a passage from the Bible he wanted read at his funeral.
Friday, at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Manhasset, Regan's teenage sister, Micheala, read those words.
"Here I am, Lord, send me," she said softly, reading from Isaiah 6:3-8.
Nearly 700 mourners crowded the pews and stood two and three deep along the walls of the church where Regan was baptized in 1980.
They listened to Micheala and to friends and relatives who remembered the man they called "Jimmy," "Jimbo," "Reges" and "Rego" as a fun-loving, humble man who always wore a smile.
Regan, 26, a Manhasset native and once a star lacrosse midfielder at Chaminade High School and Duke University, was an Army Ranger on his second deployment in Iraq and had served two tours in Afghanistan. He died Feb. 9 in Iraq when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle, the Pentagon said in a statement. He had been promoted to sergeant eight days earlier.
Before the funeral Mass, nearly 1,000 residents, students and even some local Boy Scouts braved the bitter cold and whipping wind to transform Plandome Road into a boulevard of honor as Regan's body was brought to the church.
Two fire engines from the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department flanked the street, ladders raised, hoisting a giant American flag 50 feet above the pavement to allow the procession of vehicles to pass underneath.
Stores hung posters of Regan in their windows, the words "Manhasset's Hometown Hero and Patriot," printed beneath his smiling face. More than 50 firefighters from three area fire departments, wearing dress uniforms, lined the sidewalk, saluting the procession. About 600 students from Manhasset High School, where Micheala is a junior, stood on the sidewalk, American flags in hand.
Regan's father, James, opened the limousine window and acknowledged the crowd with a wave. Eight friends, relatives and fellow soldiers served as pallbearers, wheeling the coffin, draped in an American flag, into the church.
The Rev. James C. Williams, who officiated, recounted meeting Regan for the first time when he was his homeroom teacher at Chaminade.
He recalled introducing himself, saying, "Hi, I'm Brother James." Without skipping a beat, Regan "smiled back and said, 'Hi, I'm Jimmy. We have the same name.' ... He had that big smile on his face, almost too big for his body."
Williams said he laughed at the wake when he saw a photo of Regan in Army fatigues without a smile and imagined the only way that picture could have been snapped was if his fellow soldiers told him, "Can't you stop smiling? We're trying to look tough."
"He wanted to serve his country because he felt it was more important than serving himself," Williams said.
Regan's fiancee, Mary McHugh, 26, who's from Chicago, said she was prepared to speak Friday because she knew what she would say at their wedding next year.
"Jimmy was not a very complicated person," she said. "He wanted to be happy and make everyone around him happy."
Choking back tears, she addressed Regan directly.
"Jimmy, we never got to wake up next to each other every morning, but I will wake up every morning for the rest of my life and thank God for the opportunity to have loved and been loved by you."
James Regan called his son a "warrior" with a "spirit that drew others" to him. "Warriors are never forgotten," he said. "A true patriot. My son Jimbo."
After Regan spoke, mourners sang "God Bless America."
Pallbearers wheeled his son out and lifted the coffin into a waiting hearse. Regan's parents and sisters crowded around the back door and reached in to touch the coffin. His father rapped the top of the coffin twice with his knuckles. Two Army Rangers lifted their hands to their foreheads in salute and then shut the door.
A private burial service at Arlington National Cemetery will be held next week.