Protect and Serve

Herbert Bovia was wearing the blue uniform of the New Orleans Police Department when he arrived at his home in Kenner to receive the death message about his oldest son, Joseph, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps felled by sniper fire Tuesday, August 31, in Afghanistan.

Teresa, Herbie’s wife, was home alone when three uniformed Marines knocked on her door: a chaplain, a captain, and a sergeant. They delivered the message every parent of soldiers in combat fears to hear and stayed with her until her husband and friends arrived to weep and console.

Herbie, a 30-year veteran of the NOPD, was a towering presence in the room. His hands trembled as he read a line from Joey’s handwritten letter that arrived the Monday before he died. In it Joey was wondering why he had volunteered for a third tour in Afghanistan. “Nonetheless,” he wrote, “I am at peace.” He spoke of the new recruits he was training for their dangerous mission and observed that they were “getting it”—the urgency and nobility of their work.

All his life this outstanding marine, 24 years old, had watched his father proudly don the police uniform and depart his home to put himself in harm’s way on behalf of others. Joey learned well the meaning of “serve and protect.”

Joey volunteered to help disarm roadside bombs in Afghanistan. When the unit he led and trained hit the field, he insisted on taking point. They were waiting on the bomb squad when Taliban fighters ambushed them.

The Bovias left with military escorts to receive the body of their son in Dover, Delaware. Joey was dressed in Dover and brought home for burial. More than 2,000 persons filed by to greet family members and to pay their respects to this fallen American hero. The solemn procession from First Baptist New Orleans to Garden of Memories cemetery traveled the streets escorted by officers of the NOPD and other law enforcement agencies who blocked all traffic even on the interstate.

Joey’s body was laid to rest with the calm assurance and confident faith that Joey himself was with the Lord Jesus in the Father’s House, just as Jesus promised. Joey trusted Christ at an early age and was a man of faith and prayer, courage and determination.

We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Bovia family both as a community and a country. Herbie has given his adult life to protect and serve our city, and now he and Teresa have given their oldest son in service to his country.

Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That is what U.S. Marine Sergeant Joseph Anthony Bovia did on August 31, 2010, on a battlefield in Afghanistan. He laid down his life for his friends.