Fallen New York Soldier Remembered
Flags waved, a bagpipe wailed "Amazing Grace" and eulogies of courage and comradeship flowed forth in a church yesterday for Army Sgt. 1st Class Schuyler B. Haynes, a descendant of a famous Revolutionary War general, who was killed in Iraq two weeks ago.
Mary Altaffer / AP
Members of the Patriot Guard Riders stand at attention holding American flags as the Army honor guard carry the casket of Army Sergeant 1st Class Schuyler Haynes yesterday into Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church for his funeral service.
While no one could explain it exactly, it was clear from the words that Haynes, a 40-year-old college graduate and the quintessence of an old New York family, had chosen to be a career noncommissioned officer, staying close to his soldiers, sharing and suffering everything with them on a daily basis.
"He was a loyal friend and courageous leader, equally at home with any soldier, NCO or officer," said Jimmy Campbell, who served with Haynes in Iraq. "He brought out the best in his subordinates and superiors and was absolutely incapable of shirking even the most meaningless duties."
Haynes "just wanted to be where the action was," his father, Robert Haynes, said outside the midtown Manhattan church, where more than 300 mourners, including dozens of family members, nearly filled the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.
With 17 years of service, Haynes was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed Nov. 15 by a roadside bomb that exploded near his Humvee in Baquba. The elder Haynes said his son was directly descended from Philip Schuyler, a wealthy 18th-century landowner and patriot who served in the British colonial forces and later as one of four major generals in George Washington's Continental Army.
Yesterday, two dozen members of the Patriot Guard, an ad hoc organization of bikers, most of them military veterans, provided a motorcycle escort and stood at attention with flags in the street as the ceremony began and ended.
Earlier, the deceased's 78-year-old mother, Sophy Haynes, had left the funeral home to shake hands with the Patriot Guard members waiting to escort her son's hearse 11 blocks to the church.
Haynes was to be buried today at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menand, close to the grave of his namesake, Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, who died in 1804.
