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By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer Thursday, April 5, 2007

Many of the people at Wednesday's funeral for Army Sgt. Jason Swiger were at the funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Angel Rosa two weeks earlier.

The same group of Patriot Guard Riders held American flags outside the church. Funeral attendants stood solemnly on the periphery. There were friends, teachers and civic leaders from South Portland, a city that has lost two military men in the past month.

Several hundred gathered at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland to attend the funeral Mass for Swiger, a 24-year-old member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Swiger, serving his third tour in Iraq, died on March 25 when a suicide bomber attacked his convoy in Diyala province.

"It just fills my heart to see all these people here that cared for him," said a brother, Corey Swiger, 16.

After the Mass, people crowded into the Thomas Room in South Portland for a reception. Several generations of the family reminisced about Swiger. They became silent, and many wiped away tears, as a projector showed photographs of Swiger as a curly-haired toddler sitting on his mother's lap, as a smiling young man holding a high school diploma, and as a confident soldier in uniform.

"He said, 'I want the 82nd Airborne, and I want to be a cavalry scout, and if I can't be those things, then I'm sorry I wasted your time,'" recalled his mother, Valorie Swiger.

Jason Swiger was 17, a recent graduate of South Portland High School, when he signed up with the Army. His uncles, cousins and other relatives had served.

"To begin with, we're a very humble family, a blue-collar family," said Carl McAfee, one of Swiger's uncles, who served two tours in Vietnam as an Army paratrooper with the 4th Infantry Division.

As a young boy, during visits to McAfee's home near Fort Bragg, N.C., Swiger used to watch paratroopers drop from training planes.

"He was willing to put himself out there in order to protect us," McAfee said. "He brought so much to our family."

Swiger's wife, Alanna Swiger, wore on her lapel the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart that were awarded to her husband.

"Jason was a very larger-than-life person," she said. "He was everything."

Swiger was the second South Portland native to be killed in action last month.

Angel Rosa, who was 21, died on March 13 while serving with a Marine expeditionary unit in the Anbar province of western Iraq. He was a 2004 graduate of South Portland High School.

Bound by grief and circumstance, the families have found comfort in each other.

"We're sharing the same nightmare," said Elise Rosa, the 21-year-old widow of Angel Rosa. Coincidentally, both couples were married last May, and neither had any children.

"The second I heard about it, I wanted to contact his wife immediately," said Elise Rosa, who attended the reception for Swiger on Wednesday.

Rosa waited a few days, though, because she remembered the shock and tumult that followed the death of her husband. When Rosa did call, she said, she was welcomed by Alanna and the rest of the Swiger family.

"They are so warm and kind," Rosa said. "If we can do anything at all to help them, we will."

Walter Swiger, an uncle from South Portland, said the outpouring of support in the city has helped both families. Yellow ribbons can be seen on telephone poles and street signs.

Four years ago, Valorie Swiger lobbied city officials to allow those ribbons on public property, as tributes to U.S. troops. She ultimately lost that fight, when other residents complained that the ribbons were political statements in support of the war.

Last week, city councilors voted unanimously to lift that ban for a month. Since that vote, hundreds of ribbons have been hung, from Spring Point to the roads around the Portland International Jetport. Members of the Swiger family said Wednesday that they will seek a permanent change in the ordinance.

"It is going to take a little while for the whole community to heal," Walter Swiger said. "Today brings a closure, somewhat, to the past 10 days. We have had the chance to celebrate Jason's life."

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at: