Rites for Panama Casualty

Army Pfc. Roy Dennis Brown Jr., the 19-year-old Buena Park man killed in last week’s U.S. invasion of Panama, will be buried Thursday in Orange with full military honors, his family said Monday.

A public service for Brown will be held at 11 a.m. at Pierce Brothers Daly-Bartel-Spencer Mortuary, 2425 W. Lincoln Ave., Anaheim. It will be followed by a procession to Holy Sepulcher Cemetery at 7845 Santiago Canyon Road in Orange for burial.

A military funeral detail from Ft. Ord in Northern California will be on hand for a 21-gun salute, the playing of taps and the traditional draping and folding of the American flag for presentation to the victim’s mother, Julie Otto of Buena Park.

There will be public viewing hours at the Anaheim mortuary from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and from 2 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Brown’s body was brought back to Orange County on Sunday night from Panama via Maryland. Family members gathered at the funeral home Monday morning for their first viewing.

“It’s all very difficult,” said Bob Sharkey, boyfriend of Brown’s mother. “We miss him, but the family can accept it now that we know the body’s been brought back.”

Brown was one of at least 25 American servicemen, and the only one known in Orange County, who were killed when President Bush sent U.S. troops into Panama.