Ecumenical prayer service remembers Louisiana soldiers killed in Iraq

Published: 2005-01-26

HOUMA, La. (CNS) -- Six Louisiana National Guardsmen killed after a roadside bomb hit their Bradley fighting vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq, were remembered in a Jan. 19 ecumenical prayer service at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral in Houma. A picture of each of the men -- who served with Louisiana's Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 156th Mechanized Infantry Regiment -- was placed in front of the main altar along with six yellow roses. The pews of the cathedral were filled for an ecumenical service of Scripture, prayers and song. Three of the soldiers were Catholic. Father Vicente DeLa Cruz, rector of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral, organized the prayer service for the diocese and community to remember and honor the soldiers killed Jan. 6. A seventh soldier, who was from New York, was also killed in the blast. The Louisiana soldiers included three from Houma, Staff Sgt. Christopher Babin, 27, Sgt. Bradley Bergeron, 25, and Sgt. Armand "Luke" Frickey, 20. The others were Sgt. Warren Murphy, 29, of Marrero; Sgt. Huey Fassbender III, 24, of LaPlace; and Sgt. 1st Class Kurt Comeaux, 34, of Raceland. The men, all members of a unit nicknamed the "Black Sheep," were sent to Iraq in October.

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