The hearse carrying Kyle Harrington’s body arrives at Vinnicum Woods Cemetery in Swansea, driving under an arch formed by fire department ladder trucks.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

SWANSEA — Friends and family members gathered yesterday at a funeral home off Route 6 to pay respects to Army Sgt. Kyle J. Harrington, who died accidentally in Iraq last month, while on his second tour of duty.

An honor guard flanked the drive leading up to the entrance of the Birchcrest Home of Waring-Sullivan — one row of Swansea firefighters standing at attention and one row of the Patriot Honor Guard holding American flags on poles by their sides.

Inside, mourners took their seats in an L-shaped room with Harrington’s flag-draped coffin near the base of the long side. Above the coffin, pictures of Harrington — in uniform, on duty in Iraq, picking a Halloween pumpkin with his children, snuggling with his wife, Faith — flashed on a screen.

The service, presided over by a Navy chaplain, was a mixture of military precision and Irish tradition with a brigadier general offering formal condolences and family members reciting poetry or recalling humorous anecdotes of the serviceman’s youth in Swansea. Massachusetts Governor Patrick attended, though he did not speak during the service.

A childhood friend described his admiration for Harrington, whom he watched grow from a “young goofball into a mature man.”

Harrington, 24, was born at Newport Naval Hospital and grew up in Swansea.

He had a favorite teddy bear, loved family trips to Rocky Point Park in Warwick, played sports, worked at Burger King. He graduated from Swansea’s Case High School in 2003.

In short, “he was a good kid,” said his father, Navy Chief Petty Officer Dennis Harrington, of Cranston.

Along the way, Harrington met and married Faith Ryan, had two children with her — Joshua and Kaylee — and joined the military.

“Kyle was nuts about her,” said his father. “I could tell just by the way that he talked about her.”

Kyle Harrington enlisted in May 2004, going through training in South Carolina. He was assigned to Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Wash., in early 2005 and was assigned to the 296th Corps Support Battalion. He transferred to the 542nd Maintenance Company, 80th Ordnance Battalion, 593rd Sustainment Brigade in October 2005. He was in the middle of his second tour in Iraq at the time of his death Jan. 24, in a motor pool accident in Basra. He suffered fatal injuries when a forklift backed over him.

It was “the premature conclusion to a hero’s life,” said William Ryan, Harrington’s father-in-law.

A letter from Harrington’s battalion commander, read aloud during the service, noted the Swansea man performed ably, was known for his humor, and “will be remembered as a hero who served his country.”

Army Brig. Gen. Tom Cole told the gathering: “War is fought and won in a very personal way.”

Soldiers who find themselves in harm’s way, like Harrington, can pay a price — a cost shared by others.

“It’s not just our soldiers who pay the price of freedom, the families pay so much,” Cole said.

At the conclusion of his remarks, Cole presented Harrington’s wife and parents each with a bronze star, awarded posthumously to the serviceman.

A symbolic roll call followed, with an Army first sergeant calling Harrington’s name and receiving no answer.

Shortly, mourners filed out to their cars, passing once again through the honor guard.

The long procession of cars, guided by local and Massachusetts State Police, drove west down Route 6 to the tiny Vinnicum Woods Cemetery, where the cars passed under a large American flag hung between the extended ladders of two fire trucks.

Mourners gathered along Harrington’s gray metal casket, most standing on patchy, flattened snow as Navy Chaplain M.A. Biadog Jr. made brief remarks, mostly lost to a blustery wind and the hum of vehicles passing on Route 195 nearby.

The pop-pop-pop of rifle shots from a three-member rifle team split the wind and hum.

Taps played.

A military honor guard raised an American flag off Harrington’s coffin, folded it crisply and passed it to Cole, the Army brigadier general.

He presented it to Faith, Harrington’s 22-year-old wife. Two other flags went to his parents.

The ceremony ended.

Faith Harrington rose from a chair, placed a single red rose on her husband’s coffin and turned to the embraces of her family.

pgrimald@projo.com