Weston Memorial Service Draws 1,000

"Today we pay tribute to an American hero."

So began Deputy Attorney General David Odgen, speaking to more than 1,000 people gathered at Quantico Marine Base on Nov. 6 for the memorial service of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Michael Weston. He was killed in Afghanistan on Oct. 26.

"Mike had the credentials and the talent to succeed in any profession he could have chosen, any endeavor he pursued," said Odgen of the Harvard Law School graduate. "Instead, he chose the road less traveled by – to protect the American people and the country he held dear."

The 1 pm service was packed with Marines – Weston served as a judge advocate at Camp Pendleton and in the Marine reserves, deploying three times to Iraq – and DEA agents, including a contingent posted with Weston in Afghanistan. Others came from the DEA’s Richmond, Va. field office, where Weston worked until he left for the Kabul Country Office in July 2009.

More than a dozen lawyers from the Justice Department’s National Security Division, where Weston’s wife, Cynthia Tidler, previously worked, were present as well.

On the way to Quantico, the motorcade carrying Weston’s family drove past DEA headquarters in Pentagon City, Va. Hundreds of employees lined the street in tribute. Parked at each overpass along I-95 for miles before the exit to the base was a police car, lights flashing. And scores of police cars from all jurisdictions flanked the road leading to Quantico, officers standing at attention in front of their cars.

The memorial service was a formal one, with a presentation of colors by the Marine Corps Quantico Color Guard, and a processional by the DEA black and gold bagpipers and the Quantico band brass quintet. On one side of the stage was the fallen Marine memorial —a rifle, a helmet, a set of empty boots.

Weston, 37, was killed in a helicopter crash along with two other DEA agents and 7 U.S. soldiers following a nighttime raid on a drug and weapons bazaar in northwestern Afghanistan.

Michele Leonhart, the acting head of the DEA, told the mourners that Weston had “that rare combination of a first-rate legal mind and a passion for hands-on drug enforcement.” She continued, “Mike had drive and passion in his heart, and he knew where he needed to be…He wanted to serve in places where he felt he could help America most, and it is in Afghanistan where the deadly combination of drugs and terror meet. Nothing less than the safety of the people of the world is at stake.”

Weston’s younger brother Matthew Zarit shared more personal recollections. He described elaborate childhood games of Monopoly, where the general rule was “We all play hard and Mike wins.”

“He never wanted to be the center of attention, but he couldn’t help it because he was always the most interesting person in the room,” Zarit said. But he never made himself the hero of a story, and his sense of humor was always in play.

“When he left for his second tour in Iraq,” Zarit said, “he told me he had to go back because he thought he might have left his sunglasses there the first time around.”

Comments

[American Patriot and Citizen]

@ Charles Ward and JoeBanana

Don't deceive yourselves, the both of you are bumbling buffoons and ungrateful cowards who mock and scoff at those serving you in our military. Could you both not choose a more tactful way to express your empty opinions elsewhere? Please feel free to indulge in the luxurious lifestyles that you're afforded here while real men and women sacrifice their freedom to preserve yours. Semper fidelis.

[Charles Ward]

@Joebanana --

My sentiments, too. Allow me to demur from the opinions of those praising his allegedly noble actions. To me he seems more like Don Quixote in pursuit and service of an impossible ideal.

Since when did the DEA become the good guys in the white hats? Gonna ride into town on a white horse and save all the helpless white women? Last I knew the DEA was just the bureaucratic and philosophical descendant of the Bureau of Prohibition of the 1920s and proud to be so. We all know how that mess turned out.

Michael was smart enough for Harvard Law, but foolish enough to buy into the prohibitionist mind set. He placed a bet on a bankrupt abstraction, rolled his dice and crapped out.

[tjking]

Joebanana: the world would be a much better place if we had more people like Michael Weston and fewer like yourself.

Your ignorance of the anti-drug effort in Afghanistan is only exceeded by your poor judgment in demonstrating it in this forum.

[Rob Bracknell]

Joe, your comments are inappropriate and misplaced. The article is about honoring a patriot and a close friend. You've attempted to turn it political. You should be ashamed of yourself, but you won't be.

Rob Bracknell
Marine Lieutenant Colonel and friend of Mike Weston

[Sara]

His poor, poor wife. What a tragedy. I hope people are thinking of her too this Veterans' Day.

[Michael Weston was a true hero]

Mr. Joebanana,

I met Michael Weston last month. I was also at this service last Friday. I won't argue with your comments because here in America we can say what we want and voice our disagree with the government if we choose to. However, I think we can all agree on one thing. We can all agree that you have almost no class in saying what you are saying in this forum. Michael Weston was an amazing man. And regardless of what you say here, he will always be remembered as an amazing man. Leave your comments on a different message board please.

[joebanana]

Why the hell are we trying to enforce OUR laws in foreign countries? Don't our drug laws cause enough harm here, who made the US the DEA of the world? We are the terrorists, we cause more death and destruction than any terrorist regime, way more. But we think it's okay to kill thousands of innocent children, woman, and old men, to keep the world "safe" from terrorism, what the hell kind of thinking is that? It's okay to strip our rights to keep us "safe". It's okay to have the largest prison population, of the entire world, to keep us "safe". Who the hell is going to keep us "safe" from our own government?