Army Capt. Arthur L. Felder

Died April 24, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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36, of Louisville, Ark.; assigned to 39th Support Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Army National Guard, Hazen, Ark.; killed April 24 when mortar rounds hit his camp in Taji, Iraq.

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Company commander laid to rest at national cemetery

By Cristina Rodriguez

Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Capt. Arthur “Bo” Felder’s best friend comforted almost 2,000 mourners at his funeral on May 3.

Eric Alexander, pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in North Little Rock, said Felder’s good deeds during his life were payments on his new home in heaven.

“Don’t worry about (Felder’s death),” Alexander said. “The only thing that happened was that his house got paid off.”

Besides relatives and friends, attendees to the funeral at St. Mark’s Baptist Church in Little Rock also included fellow soldiers, a group of pastors and a group of teenagers for whom Felder was a mentor.

A choir from St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in North Little Rock shook the building with gospel music in between testimony about Felder’s roles as a son, co-worker, soldier and man of God.

Felder, 36, of Lewisville, died April 24 in an 80mm rocket strike against the 39th Infantry Brigade at Camp Cook north of Baghdad. Three other Arkansans were killed in the attack: Chief Warrant Officer Patrick W. Kordsmeier of North Little Rock, Staff Sgt. Stacey C. Brandon of Hazen and Staff Sgt. Billy Joe Orton of Humnoke.

“Arthur was never a fighter, he was always a mediator,” said his mother, Cheryl F. Stuart. “He was never a complainer, he was always a complimenter.”

Stuart said that, from the age of 6, her son led the family in prayer before dinner.

Alexander said his friend never gave up that practice. The crowd roared with laughter as Alexander recalled Felder praying in a McDonald’s and “making a scene about it” and Felder leaving prayers on people’s answering machines.

“If you knew him, you knew he was a praying man. If you knew him you knew he loved the Lord,” Alexander said.

And even though he was a big man — at 6-foot-4, 290 pounds, as Felder liked to remind people — he was a “gentle giant,” Alexander said.

Maj. Gen. Don C. Morrow, adjutant general for the Arkansas Army National Guard, said Felder was kind but could be tough when necessary. He said Felder’s willingness to die for his soldiers wasn’t surprising.

“Bo felt that strongly about his troops. He loved them,” Morrow said.

He said Felder told his son he was serving in Iraq to ensure the freedom of his children, and children in Iraq.

“Not only is freedom not free, it’s the most expensive thing in the world,” Morrow said. “This family knows what that price is.”

Felder, whose family has served in the military since World War I, joined the Army the summer of his junior year in high school. He had been deployed to Bosnia and Honduras before going to Iraq. In Iraq, he was serving as commander of Headquarters Company of the 39th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard, activated and deployed as part of the 1st Cavalry Division.

He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal at the funeral.

Felder was born in Little Rock and grew up in Flint, Mich., Fort Smith and Lewisville. He attended Ouachita Baptist University, and completed a physical education degree at East Texas Baptist University.

Before the 39th was activated, he was youth ministry director at St. Luke’s, working with two boot camp programs and at the Step One Alternative School of Little Rock.

After the funeral, Felder was given a military burial at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock.