By Clarke Canfield
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine — A Fort Bragg-based Army paratrooper killed by a suicide bomber while handing out candy to Iraqi children was remembered Wednesday as a good man who stood up for his beliefs and died while extending his hand in friendship.

More than 400 people filled the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to honor Sgt. Jason Swiger, 24, who was killed March 25 in Baqubah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.

Military officials told family members that he was killed after he and several other soldiers left the protection of their Humvee to hand out candy to children after their convoy stopped.

Swiger’s death is all the more difficult not only because of the way he died but because of his young age, Monsignor Paul Stefanko said during an hour-long Mass.

“He will be remembered as a man of his word,” Stefanko said. “As a man who stood up for what he believed in. As one who was willing to fight for those beliefs and values. As a man who was proud to be serving in the military. As a man who befriended many. As a man who was good and kind, a man who died doing a good thing as he reached out to a child in friendship.”

Many in the church held small American flags, while others wore yellow ribbons on their lapels.

A day after news of Swiger’s death swept through his hometown, his mother led an effort that left South Portland awash in hundreds of yellow ribbons honoring military personnel serving in the Middle East.

AP photos

Pallbearers carry the casket of Army Sgt. Jason Swiger of Fort Bragg from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception following the funeral on Wednesday.