The brother of a fallen soldier said at a memorial service Tuesday that his family would “love and comfort” the New Haven woman who was to have been the soldier’s wife.
More than 1,300 mourners filled the sanctuary of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden to celebrate the life of U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Sklaver, a New Haven native and Army reservist called to active duty in Afghanistan. He was killed in action last Friday. (Background here.)
Sklaver and Beth Segaloff (pictured) were to be married next year. Beth is the daughter of James and Barbara Segaloff, a prominent New Haven attorney and civic volunteer, respectively.
Sklaver’s younger sister Annie remembered her big brother as a civil servant and a humanitarian. After a posting in Uganda, Ben started his own New Haven-based nonprofit, ClearWater Initiative, to help build wells and reduce deaths among children in Uganda from contaminated water. And she remembered him as a hero. She told a story of Ben explaining how he tried to encourage the men who served under him to take initiative. Beth had asked Ben what his role was as the leader of these men. “He said, ‘I always go out first.’”
Sam Sklaver, Ben’s younger brother, elicited loud laughter with a story about Ben and Beth’s courtship.
“There’s a great story about the way Beth and Ben met,” he said, “and how old man Segaloff started calling Gary around 2 a.m., worried because his little girl had missed a non-existent curfew. Maybe she had joined a biker gang, or worse. But the truth is that you and Ben were just sitting on the beach, talking. On that first night you started talking and planning and dreaming, and you never stopped. Beth, the last year and a half was the happiest of my brother’s life.”
He continued, “Ben, I want you to know that we will let Beth be sad for awhile longer, but then we’ll make her happy again. And while we can never hold her as you held her, we will hold her. While we can never comfort her as you comforted her, we will comfort her. Ben, we could never love Beth as you loved her but I swear to you we’ll always love her.”
Outside Mishkan Israel, lining both sides of the entrance, dozens of military supporters held American flags. A contingent of state and municipal motorcycle police from many towns stood ready to escort the hearse to Sklaver’s burial in Morris, Connecticut.
The family asked that anyone with memories of Ben send them to this email address to be compiled into a book to be shared with his family and friends.
The New Haven Board of Aldermen Monday night issued a citation, written by Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen, consoling the family and honoring Sklaver.
God blees him and all of our fallen hero's