By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

No one spoke as the chartered Falcon 20 navigated the tarmac at Mineral Wells Municipal Airport midday Wednesday, bringing U.S. Army Sgt. John Jared Savage home.

“It’s really devastating because we didn’t get to see him that much,” said his mother, Jacki Park, in an exclusive interview with the Index. She said her son was “one of my best friends.”

Savage, 26, was killed Dec. 4 when a suicide bomber in an SUV broadsided his armored vehicle 50 feet from his base in Mosul, Iraq. One of three men killed in the attack, he died four days prior to his leave. He was in the 103rd Engineer Company, 94th Engineer Company, of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Their deaths brought to 4,209 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the beginning of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Approximately 100 people were on hand Wednesday for his arrival, filling the sidewalks and grass between the airport terminal and the tarmac. Savage’s father, John Savage, of Peaster, Texas, wiped tears from his eyes when the flag-draped coffin emerged. He stood next to his wife, Carole, on the tarmac edge.

When someone asked how she was, Carole Savage said she was “holding.”

The procession of vehicles that left the airport for Baum-Carlock-Bumgardner Funeral Home of Mineral Wells included several members of the Patriot Guard riders, their motorcycles preceding the hearse and accompanying family members. Service with full military honors is 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Baum-Carlock-Bumgardner Chapel.

Park said they were notified of Savage’s death by the military on Friday when two officers came to her home in Mineral Wells.

“We’re proud of him and always have been,” she said. “He’d even told his nieces and nephews with whom he’s very close, ‘I’m doing this for you, so you can live free and that’s why Uncle Bud has to go.’ He said, ‘I’m doing this for you guys.’”

“He loved the military. It was a lifelong dream of his,” said Park. She recalled stories from Savage’s childhood that showed a distinct interest in the military – replacing his bed with an Army cot and footlocker, painting his room black with netting on the walls and building a Quonset hut in the backyard. “He lived it from that age.”

According to Park, Savage had many relatives in the Army and Navy, including his grandfather and uncles in New York.

“He talked with them all the time,” she recalled. “I think [his desire to join] just came naturally.”

Born in Peaster, Savage moved to Mineral Wells at a young age. After the ninth grade, Park said she pulled him from public school and home schooled him until he graduated at 16 years of age.

“He went into the service in 2000 at 18 years old, as soon as he was able,” Park recalled. “He spent a year in the National Guard [before] transferring to the Army. He was excited about it all the time.”

Savage’s tenure in the Army included three tours out of the country, according to his mother. He spent three years in Germany before deploying to Iraq on his first tour in 2005 before returning home in March of 2007. He was deployed again in September, Park said, was supposed to be gone until March of 2009 but they were coming home early.

While her son was half a world away, Park said they communicated often through letters, e-mail and the Internet. His family sent frequent care packages stuffed with cookies for him and his unit.

She described Savage as a charismatic young man with a great sense of fun and who was taught to always look for the brighter side of a situation.

“You never could get one up on his. He had a quick mind [and was] a practical joker,” she explained. “He said it made the bad things better. He probably got that from me.”

In her last conversation with him the day before he died, Park said he was telling her about reaching a personal goal – being healthy and reaching 180 pounds from weight training.

“He could bench press 640 pounds 37 times,” Park said with pride. “I’m so glad he did his goal because that was one of his goals before he deployed to Iraq. He was an incredible young man.”

“He loved Mineral Wells,” Park said, adding that he’d planned to purchase land when he was reassigned to Texas. “This is where he wanted to be stationed. He was planning, always planning ahead. …

“He loved this little town. This was home. He was excited about coming home.”

Savage is survived by his mother, Jaclyn Park, of Mineral Wells, Texas; sisters and brother-in-law, Joenell and Randy West, of Mineral Wells and Jamie Senecal, of Mineral Wells; daughter, Nicole Jean Savage, of Whitt, Texas; six nieces and nephews and several aunts, uncles and cousins.