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County’s heroes laid to rest
Thousands mourn pilot Bunker, volunteer Mallard at pair of funerals Saturday
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by GARY SMITH
The family of volunteer medic Tonya M. Mallard leaves North Point High School following her funeral Saturday.
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Tonya M. Mallard, 38, and Stephen H. Bunker, 59, both of Waldorf, were eulogized and laid to rest in separate ceremonies held in Waldorf and White Plains, respectively, both attended by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D).
Mallard and Bunker were killed when the state police helicopter Bunker was piloting crashed in District Heights on Sept. 28 while carrying two accident victims to the Prince George’s Hospital Center’s shock trauma unit.
Also killed in the crash were accident victim Ashley J. Younger, 17, of Waldorf and Trooper Mickey C. Lippy, 34, of Westminster. Younger’s funeral was held Thursday, and Lippy was buried Friday.
Crash victim Jordan A. Wells, 18, of Waldorf remains in critical condition, though she is expected to recover.
The accident remains under investigation by a team from the National Transportation Safety Board.
A beacon of comfort
Mallard’s funeral was held at 9 a.m. in a packed North Point High School gymnasium.
The family arrived, walking behind the Rev. Calvin Johnson, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Waldorf. Johnson read a Bible passage from John: 14 as the family entered the school doors.
‘‘I will not leave you comfortless,” read Johnson, reciting Jesus’ speech to his disciples. ‘‘I will come to you.”
After prayer, a song and a pair of Scripture readings, O’Malley came to the podium to express ‘‘the heartfelt condolences of our entire state as well as our gratitude for the greatness of this woman, Tonya Mallard.”
O’Malley noted the ‘‘tragic and sad irony” that Mallard was killed attempting to save lives in a medevac flight.
‘‘I hope, though, that in some way your family is feeling the outpouring of prayer that the people of this state asked me to pass on to you,” O’Malley said. ‘‘God bless you all in this time of horrible sadness.”
Commissioner Reuben B. Collins II (D) followed O’Malley.
‘‘What we need to understand is that the brevity of life is not important,” Collins observed, adding that it is the quality of a life that matters. ‘‘Tonya lived her life as a servant, much as Christ asked all of us to live. ... The challenge for you now is to continue that legacy.”
‘‘We lost a friend, a comrade, on Sunday morning,” said Chief Dan Stevens of the Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department, of which Mallard was a member. ‘‘Tonya’s smile was like a beacon from a lighthouse that everyone took comfort in. She did the thankless jobs that, I’m sorry to say, others tried to get out of.”
Stevens said that Mallard was excited to board the medevac flight and accompany the accident victims to the hospital.
‘‘She was smiling and had a look of peace on her face when she sat in Trooper 2,” Stevens said. ‘‘It was something that she wanted to do.”
Stevens then posthumously promoted Mallard to the rank of sergeant, saying, ‘‘There’s little doubt that Tonya would have been promoted to this position as soon as she had [served] enough time.”
The Rev. Christopher Ogne of the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Bryans Road spoke on behalf of the Wells family, saying, ‘‘They are painfully aware that four people lost their lives to try to save their little girl.”
Mallard’s family also spoke. Her older son, Julian, 15, said, ‘‘Everything everyone says about her is true. My mother, she passed away doing something she dearly loved to do.”
Mallard’s husband, Kenneth, said, ‘‘She dedicated herself to taking care of us” and thanked Stevens and thanked the fire department for ‘‘allowing her to be remembered as a hero.”
‘A man’s man’
Stephen Bunker’s funeral began at 11 a.m. at South Potomac Church in White Plains. The parking lot was a sea of gray, blue, brown and olive, filled with vehicles and officers from across the state and Washington, D.C.
Three lines of state troopers stood in parade formation in front of the church entrance, backed up by several lines of officers from other jurisdictions.
The family did not allow the news media to observe the funeral directly; however, the church did broadcast the service from speakers on the side of the building.
On a signal, the troopers in the parade formation filed into the sanctuary to the hymn ‘‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus” played on an electric piano.
O’Malley honored Bunker with a similar speech to the one he gave at Mallard’s funeral, but noted Bunker’s unquestioning sense of duty.
‘‘When lives were on the line, he didn’t ask if they were black or white, rich or poor,” O’Malley said of Bunker.
‘‘Steven Bunker was a man’s man,” said state police commander Col. Terrence B. Sheridan. He noted that Bunker was two weeks away from his 60th birthday, but showed ‘‘no sign of slowing down.”
‘‘To be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for others is something so few are willing to do,” Sheridan concluded.
Maj. Andrew J. McAndrew, commander of the MSP’s aviation division, asked all the members of his command to stand. Then, to the family, he said, ‘‘We are for you, now and forever.”
McAndrew noted that not all of the aviation division could be at the funeral, since many were on call, waiting to rescue those in need.
‘‘Despite the risk, they will risk their lives for the sake of others,” McAndrew said. ‘‘We owe it to Steve ... and Tonya to continue our mission.”
U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th), a family friend of Bunker’s widow, gave an intensely personal eulogy.
‘‘Those of you who have lost a spouse know the void that it leaves,” Hoyer said, referring to the death of his own wife Judy in 1997. ‘‘It’s a void that doesn’t go away.” Hoyer praised Bunker as ‘‘a hero in uniform, a hero in civilian clothes; a hero to his family, a hero to all of us,” and concluded, ‘‘Godspeed, our faithful servant.”
