BURLINGTON FLATS, N.Y. (AP) — The seven flags Army Cpl. Michael Mayne unveiled at his hometown park on Memorial Day in 2003 were part of his Eagle Scout project.
Those flags are now flying at half-staff, marking the death of the 21-year-old central New York soldier killed Monday by Iraqi insurgents. Two other U.S. soldiers and an interpreter also died in the small-arms attack.
Brian Long, who was Mayne’s scoutmaster, recalled the determination and work that went into the project that featured Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, Air Force and Merchant Marine flags arrayed around an American flag in Burlington Flats Memorial Park.
“He was serious about what he was going to do,” Long told The Oneonta Daily Star. “You know the Boy Scout oath: ‘On my honor, I will do my best: to do my duty, to God, and my country ...’ Well, he believed in that. He lived it.”
Calls to Mayne’s home by The Associated Press went unanswered Wednesday. Mayne was due to return from Iraq in May, according to friends.
He was stationed with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Wainright in Alaska before deploying in August.
“I think he just wanted to help his country,” said Tierney Johnson, a friend who first met Mayne in preschool. “He wanted to be able to come home and say, ’I was there, and I put my time into it, and I did it for everyone I love.”’
Mayne lived in Burlington Flats, a hamlet in Otsego County, 75 miles southeast of Syracuse, and graduated from Edmeston Central School in 2006. Teacher’s assistant Terry Hickling said many of the teachers there were having a tough time handling the news.
“Most kids his age are graduating from college and getting on with their lives,” Hickling said. “It’s just not right.”
Jim Brophy, a guidance counselor, said Mayne was in a vocational program and studied welding and natural-resources occupations.
“We loved him here. He was fun to be with and would go out of his way to help anyone,” Brophy said.
After high school, Mayne enlisted in the Army while classmates Tom Tophoven and Tony Degristina enrolled in colleges. But the young men stayed in touch, Degristina told The Utica Observer-Dispatch.
“The last time I talked to him was Saturday,” Degristina said. “He was thinking about going to school for criminal justice and getting a job with the federal government when he got out of the Army.”
Friends described Mayne as someone who was always willing to take their side in a fight and as an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting, motorcycles and big trucks.
“He liked guy things, trucks and motors, the louder the better,” Tophoven said.
Tophoven described his former football teammate and fellow Eagle Scout as an easygoing guy who never complained and never asked much in return for the favors he did. But, he said, it’s impossible to sum up Mayne’s entire life with just a few words.
“He was a person that left high school, left home, left everyone he knew, to join the military, one of the most honorable things you can do,” Tophoven said. “I don’t know what you want to call that. A man? A hero? Heroes come and go. Mike is one of the legends in my book.”
Funeral plans had not yet been set.