VIDEO: Hundreds Come Out To Pay Their Respects And Celebrate The Life Of Sgt. Kyle Thomas

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI)-The city of Amory paid its respects to one of their own Thursday evening as Sgt. Kyle Thomas was laid to rest.

“I did tear up a few times, I did,” said Dian Wilemon, who attended Thursday’s funeral.
Emotions were running high as hundreds gathered at First Baptist Church for the home-going service of Sgt. Thomas.

“There was a lot of crying,” Wilemon recalled. “You could hear a lot of crying, but you also could hear laughter. A couple of his very close friends came and spoke. One of his best friends that he was deployed with spoke, and there was some laughter. So evidently he was a very special young man.”

Thomas tragically lost his life last week during a training exercise in fort Irwin, California.

“We take for granted when they go for training, they’re just training,” said Wilemon.

Thomas is considered a hero in his community.

After the funeral a processional was held.

Residents lined up along Main Street waving their flags in the air as the hearse carrying Thomas’s body passed by.

For it was an opportunity to say one last farewell to their hero.

“To have one of our fallen soldiers come home, we all just kind of wanted to come out and just pay our respects,” said Beth McArthur.  “He did the ultimate price and he went for the training, and we are so grateful to have him.”

“We have to honor our soldiers,” Wilemon expressed. “We have to. We have to support them and help them and the families go on when they are deployed or when something like this happens.”

And even though he’s gone, resident said the sacrifice Sgt. Thomas paid, will never be forgotten.

“I know that he is in a good place, and pray that his family and his little daughter will be able to have peace, and have joy out of his life that he has served here,” said McArthur.

Governor Phil Bryant was one of the speakers during today’s homecoming service.

Thomas was buried with military Honors at Haughton Memorial Park.