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Family mourns as fallen soldier comes home

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By GEORGE H. NEWMAN

gnewman@tampatrib.com

Published: November 4, 2009

PLANT CITY - Friends and family are remembering the life and mourning the death of Army Spec. Eric Lembke, who died while on duty in Afghanistan Oct. 23.

Lembke's body will be flown from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on Thursday and will then be taken to Hopewell Funeral Home.

A visitation with the family will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Plant City's First Baptist Church. A funeral service at the church will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Lembke, 25, was raised in Plant City, attended Plant City High and graduated from Simmons Career Center in May 2002. He is survived by his wife, Mashelle, and the couple's children; Alexis, 6, and Nathaniel, 3.

The Plant City resident joined the military on Jan. 29, 2008. Trained as a combat engineer, his main duty in Afghanistan was to help find hidden explosives and detonate them, his wife said. Military sources told her Lembke was killed by an improvised explosive device while on a routine mission, she said.

On Oct. 25, Lembke's body arrived by military transport at Dover Air Force Base. Mashelle Lembke was flown there from her home in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the family lived while her husband was on active duty. She and her parents, Thomas and Diana Norton, viewed the military proceedings, which included the removal of the casket containing her husband's body from the plane.

Burial will take place Saturday, immediately after the funeral, at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.

"Eric told me that if he was killed in combat that he wanted to be buried at the military cemetery in Bushnell," his wife said. "My grandfather, Don Henry Turner, is buried there. He was an Air Force veteran. Eric wanted to honor my grandfather, and we both know that it is a beautiful and moving place to honor all soldiers who are buried there."

Family friend Janet Llamas of Colorado Springs said of Lembke: "He is going to be missed. He is really a great soldier."

Llamas met Eric and Mashelle Lembke in August 2008, two months after the Army transferred the Lembkes to Colorado Springs. Llamas' husband, Angel, was in the same unit as Lembke. They were deployed Feb. 15, and their tour was to end in 2010, Llamas said.

"Eric was proud to be a soldier," Mashelle Lembke said. "He was a wonderful husband and father. His family always came first. He did everything he could to make sure that we would be OK. He was honest and brave."

Mashelle Lembke contacted First Baptist associate minister Tommy Warnock after learning of her husband's death.

"Mash contacted me that Friday Oct. 23 while I was at a seminar," Warnock said. "She sent me a text saying Eric died in Afghanistan and she asked me to call her right away. At that time she didn't know about the circumstances of his death. She was told by the military that he died earlier that day and that he was being flown back to the states."

Warnock played a big part in the young couple's lives.

"I met, counseled and performed their wedding ceremony seven years ago," Warnock said. "Eric is a young man who I came to appreciate a great deal. Both he and Mash took well to counseling as they prepared for marriage. Eric was strong on ambition. He looked for ways to better his career and the lives of his family.

"The military looked like a good decision to him. Mash said that everything he did was done to help her and their children."

The couple was married at Cornerstone Center, in the renovated First Baptist sanctuary built in 1923 and registered as an historic site. Friends said they were the first to be married there after the renovation.

Warnock said the couple attended services there regularly. They were active in the young adult ministry and volunteered as children's Sunday school teachers.

"Mash's parents live in Tampa," Warnock said.

"I have talked with her (Mashelle Lembke) several times since she learned of Eric's death. She is being very strong. We all need to help her and her family work through this."

As a child Lembke was in foster care, his wife said. He was adopted by Dorothy Lembke, who cared for foster children, when he was 12, she said.

While he was in school, Lembke took a job at the Orange Blossom Tea Room on Evers Street.

Jannie Getty, 50, remembers meeting Lembke at the Tea Room in 2001.

"They were extremely busy that day," said Getty. "A few months later I was working there. Eric was a good boy who turned into a great young man."

"I remember one day when we were catering an event at the Stardust Ballroom for a huge New Year's Eve gathering," Getty said during a telephone interview. "Eric and Mash had a car full of food and we were waiting for them to deliver it so we could set up the buffet. Running late but none the worse for wear, Eric walks in and calmly as you please said he was caught speeding down Collins Street and had to wait for the police to finish writing him a ticket."

"Nothing seemed to faze Eric. He took life so easy. He had a warm and sincere smile. All of the little ladies who ate lunch and dinner at the tea room loved Eric. He was a hard worker and loved his children."

Chris Jackson, 30, also worked with Lembke at the Tea Room.

"Eric and Mashelle both worked at the Tea Room," Jackson said. "I think they were dating in high school. Eric was about 16 or 17 years old. We were good friends. He was easy going; kind of a carefree and independent guy. He could take care of himself."

"I remember when Eric enlisted in the Army. He didn't talk about going in, but one day he told me he was signing up. That was the last time I saw him."

Reporter Jose Patino Girona contributed to this story. Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 731-8161.

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