HATBORO, Pa. (AP) -- Firefighter John Kulick, a Pennsylvania guardsman who was killed in Iraq, took his last ride on a fire engine Thursday.
Hatboro fire engine No. 95-2 carried his coffin to its burial site Thursday in Montgomery County as hundreds of mourners followed the blocks-long procession.
Spc. Kulick, a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and a full-time firefighter, was one of five Pennsylvania guardsmen killed Aug. 9, the deadliest day of the war for the state's soldiers.
Kulick and three other guardsmen with the 1st Battalion, 111th infantry, which is based in Philadelphia, died when their armored Humvee was attacked by Iraqi insurgents. Staff Sgt. Ryan Ostrom, a member of the 1st Battalion, 109th Infantry, based in Williamsport, was killed in a separate attack in Iraq on Aug. 9.
Hundreds gathered inside Lehman Memorial United Methodist Church in Bucks County to pay their last respects to Kulick, 35, a Jenkintown resident, who is survived by a 9-year-old daughter.
Kulick was an assistant fire marshal with the Whitpain Township Fire Department, where he had worked as a full-time firefighter for seven years. He was also a volunteer firefighter with the Hatboro Fire Department in Bucks County.
Police officers, soldiers and firefighters from around the state and as far away as New York joined Kulick's family and friends for the memorial service and funeral.
Army National Guard chaplain, Major Gary Taylor, described Kulick as a great man whose love for his country and his daughter, Amanda Kulick, led him to become a guardsman, a soldier and an ''ambassador of peace.''
The small town of Hatboro closed a three-block stretch of its main street so that nearly 100 fire engines, rescue vehicles, Humvees and police cruisers could park near the church.
After the memorial service, Kulick's fellow firefighters lifted his flag-draped coffin onto a Hatboro fire engine as a pipe and drum brigade, made up of area police and firefighters, solemnly played.
Six firefighters stood vigil over his coffin as the procession wound its way south toward Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in suburban Philadelphia. A Whitpain Township fire engine, bearing flowers and funeral wreaths, followed the Hatboro ladder truck bearing his coffin.
Kulick was buried with full military honors.
Lt. Col. Marc Ferraro, commander of the First-111th Infantry, attended the memorial service and funeral, the first of five he and other guardsmen will attend between Thursday and Saturday. He said the soldiers would help one another to cope in the coming days.
''We rely on one another, we are one big family,'' he said.
At the graveside ceremony, Ferraro nodded toward the hundreds who filed by Kulick's coffin to say goodbye.
''Look around _ you can't help but believe we are celebrating the life of a great American.''
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