Coming Home

Berkeley Township Patrolman Richard Breitenbach will rise early this morning and begin the trip to Dover, Del., to escort the body of a young Seaside Park Army officer killed in Afghanistan on Oct. 26.

"We're showing a soldier some respect," Breitenbach said.

Sgt. John A. Lyons — a 2003 graduate — died on active duty in Ghazni Province. He was assigned to the 8th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade in Fort Hood, Texas.

Breitenbach and other officers will escort Lyons' hearse from the Dover Air Force base to the New Jersey border, where they will be met by New Jersey State Police. They will then drive in a procession to J Street in Seaside Park, where he lived.

"It's a terrible thing, these kids going over there," Breitenbach said. "We've got to show them some respect. Too many people don't recognize what the military does."

The procession should arrive in Seaside Park sometime around 11:30 a.m., Breitenbach said. After looping through the borough, the procession will proceed to the Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals on St. Catherine Boulevard in Holiday City.

Lyons graduated from Rutgers University in 2008, with degrees in political science and Latin.

He is survived by his parents, his mother Susan Smiley of Seaside Park; his father Ron Lyons, New Hampshire; his brother Adam and his wife Meredith, New Hampshire; his sister Lisa Lyons, Virginia; his maternal grandmother Gloria Smiley; New Jersey, his fiancee, Kristiani Endreson, Florida; several aunts and uncles and two nephews, according to his obituary on Legacy.com.

His family will receive friends at the funeral home from 1 to 3 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday.