‘A beautiful day to remember my son’

Hundreds gathered at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre on Aug. 18 to remember Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley Jr., a Marine from Oceanside who was killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 10. he was 21.

Sue Grieco/Herald

Sue Grieco/ Herald

More than 1,000 people came to mourn and pay their respects to Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. Clockwise from top left, his family watched as his body was taken from the hearse and into the cathedral. His father was supported as they left the funeral Mass, and, behind him, Greg’s brothers consoled their mother, who clutched his picture. The Marine pallbearers placed Buckley’s casket in the hearse at the end of the Mass, and earlier, they carried their fallen brother into St. Agnes Cathedral while his family watched.

Sue Grieco/Herald

Sue Grieco/Herald

Sue Grieco/Herald

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The solemn sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” mixed with the throaty roar of motorcycles as the hearse carrying Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley’s body pulled up in front of St. Agnes Cathedral last Saturday afternoon.

Motorcycle officers from Hempstead, Freeport and elsewhere led an Oceanside Fire Department truck that was wreathed in flowers in honor of the fallen Marine.

The gentle breeze barely moved the large flag suspended between ladder trucks from the Oceanside and Rockville Centre fire departments.

Nearly 200 people stood silently in the sun outside the cathedral as the six Marines serving as Buckley’s pallbearers removed his flag-draped casket from the hearse. The motorcycles that comprised his honor guard were still pulling into the parking lot, but even their engines seemed quieter at that moment. Buckley’s family watched, holding one another, as their son and brother was slowly carried into St. Agnes.

Reporters for every news outlet in New York were there, but none asked questions. Cameras clicked, but no one heard them. Parents standing on the sidewalks held their children as others held American flags, bowed in honor of Buckley.

The world was silent.

Many of those who lined the street outside St. Agnes to pay their respects did not know Buckley or his family. Some were veterans, but many were civilians.

“It just seemed like the right thing to do,” one man said.

There were more than 1,000 people inside the cathedral, many of them standing. Many were strangers to the Buckleys. The thread that united them all was the man being wheeled down the nave — a 21-year-old who loved his family and friends. A young man who decided to set an example for his two younger brothers and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. A young man who, just days before he was scheduled to come home for a visit, was gunned down.