A cool mist began to fall just as the funeral cortege of a fallen hero approached Riverhead High School.
A low-flying military helicopter appeared in the overcast sky just before the motorcade arrived on Harrison Avenue, the thwump-thwump-thwump of its rotating blades piercing the eerie silence of a sorrowful morning on the Riverhead campus.
The copter circled overhead, waiting.
The cortege stretched as far as the eye could see from the high school down Harrison and Osborn avenues, where the football field fence was adorned with yellow ribbons and hundreds of small American flags, each with a light blue carnation at its base, lined the sidewalk. Students, teachers and staff stood quietly as the motorcade passed.
Riverhead High School NJROTC cadets and Riverhead firefighters in dress uniform snapped to attention and saluted as Suffolk County and Riverhead Town motorcycle police and Patriot Guard Riders turned into the driveway in front of the high school, flanked by cadets and members of the Riverhead Blue Waves football team.
Behind the motorcycle escort came the gleaming black hearse carrying the remains of Tech. Sgt. Dashan Briggs, 30, a 2007 graduate of Riverhead High School, where he was a star football player and member of the varsity lacrosse team.
Dozens of cars followed behind the hearse, many of their drivers and passengers growing visibly emotional as they passed before the NJROTC color guard at the school Briggs attended.
Sorrow was etched on the face of football coach Leif Shay, who stood at the head of the line of players opposite the cadets.
Word of the Riverhead alumni’s death in Iraq March 15 sent shock waves through the school community as the news spread the following day.
“My heart is broken,” Shay told RiverheadLOCAL in a March 16 interview. “He was one of the great ones, a true leader. He exemplified what it means to be a man.”
Briggs was one of seven men killed when the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter they were riding in crashed in western Iraq near the Syrian border. Briggs and three others were deployed out of the 106th Air National Guard Rescue Wing in Westhampton. The Department of Defense said the crash did not appear to be the result of enemy fire.
Briggs leaves behind his wife Rebecca and children, Jayden, 2, and Ava, 1.
From the high school, the procession made its away to Calverton National Cemetery, where Briggs will be laid to rest.
As the service concluded there, a pair of F15 fighter jets paid the fallen hero a final tribute.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Denise Civiletti
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