Operation Enduring Freedom Va. community says farewell to soldier hero

As two hundred citizens from the Shenandoah Valley stood outside holding American flags, the flag-draped coffin with the body of 24-year-old Army Spc. Brian Anderson, known locally as Bucky, was carried into Broadway High School’s packed gymnasium where he had graduated six years earlier.

It was a place Spc. Anderson had known well. He had excelled at sports in that school and was on the wrestling and football teams. He had been a two-time AA state champion in wrestling and earned All-American status in the Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Association Eastern Nationals. Later, while attending James Madison University in Harrisonburg, he was a member of their wrestling team for two years.