Before leaving for Iraq, Chris McCraw was able to come home and visit with his fiance, Brianna Bell, and meet his son, Isaac.

With nearly a quarter-million words in the Oxford English dictionary, there are no adequate words to describe the feelings evoked at the sight of a flag-draped coffin – the sight of another soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

On Sunday, Nov. 2, Macon County friends and families gathered to pay tribute to one such soldier — Christopher A. McCraw,

McCraw, just 23 years old, leaves behind his family, including high school sweetheart and fiancé Brianna Bell, and their 17- month-old child, Isaac.

“He was a good kid. He was a good soldier. He was going to be a great man,” said his mother, Cathy McCraw.

Chris McCraw and his fiance Brianna Bell before the birth of their son.

“As a teenager, it is so difficult to figure out what you want to do, who you are,” Bell’s sister Donna Tallini said. But the military gave Chris a passion and a new direction.

“This was going to be his career, he had told me. He planned to come home a corporal and go before the board to become a sergeant. He was going to make this his career, or stay in it as long as Brianna would let him,” said his mother.

Just prior to his death, he was told he received the promotion from private first class to specialist.

It was a little brotherly love or friendly sibling competition that prompted Chris’s decision to join the military,

“He wasn’t going to leave his brother on foreign soil alone. He said he wanted to go over and protect his big brother,” Tallini said.

His older brother, Sean, served two tours in Iraq and is now home from his tour of duty.

Veterans assembled to pay tribute to one of their own, fallen in the line of duty.

He knew he had a new son on the way when he left for basic training in 2006. He told his family this would be the best way he could provide a good life for his son.

He was able to come home from his base in Hawaii to see the newborn just prior to leaving for Iraq.

Tallini said when he came home he was so serious with his infant son. When Isaac was put down for a nap he readied the whole house on a silent watch.

“He was so serious. But then when Isaac wouldn’t go to sleep, he got him up and we started taking pictures and he was just his plain old goofy self,” Tallini said.

Friends and family describe him as one who was always ready with a smile, the first one to crack a joke, no matter how corny.

“He would tell you the same joke over and over again – and laugh just as hard each time,” said his mother.

His family photo album shows the life of a young boy who lived life to the fullest from pictures of playing with his friends to climbing in trees.

“He even had scars from the time he climbed up to his treehouse and slid down the whole trunk of the tree like a slide. He was always into something,” said his mother.

Dianna Queen, another sister of Bell’s, said it his joking that she will miss the most. Whenever he would call he would disguise his voice to try and trick her into believing he was someone else. Life was always something to laugh about.

On October 14, while on patrol in Nasar Wa Salam, his unit was attacked with small arms fire. McCraw did not survive. Since March of 2003, there are now 4,020 casualties from the Iraq conflict.

On a social networking Web site, MySpace, where he kept in touch with family and friends, he lists his status as “ready to come home and see my family.”

He was brought home to the States and was buried in Mississippi on Oct. 24, where at his memorial service he recived three medals: the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Good Conduct Medal. McCraw was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

On Sunday, friends and family gathered at the American Legion in Franklin to pay honor and tribute to McCrraw and his family.

One of Bell’s cousins spoke at the service, of Chris’ deep passion for faith and a belief that Chris is now in a better place.

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend,” quoted Andy Wilson from the book of John. “Chris left us to fulfill a task. He gave his life for us.”

One by one the honor guard of the American Legion filed in and each in turn saluted a framed photo of Christopher McCraw. The flag was brought in and folded in customary presentation – the red stripes representing the blood shed, the white, boldly proclaiming peace folded into a triangle and tucked into itself where only the blue field and the stars remain representing the freedom that is achieved when the heavens are free from fire.

Outside, rifles were fired in salute to the fallen soldier.

As family and friends gathered, few tears were shed – most told stories and laughed at the antics he had shared with each of them.

Tallini said it was what the family should do.

“That’s Chris coming through to the end. That is what he taught us.”