Tampa soldier honored with military-style procession

Tampa soldier honored with military-style procession; funeral is Saturday
By Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, August 19, 2010


BRANDON

One day in June, Annette Cuzzupe-Kirk popped into her car stereo a CD of songs her Army medic son gave her before he left for Afghanistan.

"Use this to remember me," was written on the front.

Cuzzupe-Kirk thought her son meant until he got back home.

But when she heard the lyrics, she quickly shut off the music.

"I just promised myself that I was not going to listen to it anymore unless I absolutely had to," she said.

She'll hear it again Friday night at a memorial service for her son, 23-year-old Paul O. Cuzzupe II, who died in combat on Aug. 8. The selections include Tom Petty's Free Falling, Jim Croce's I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song, and a track that made Mrs. Cuzzupe-Kirk wince: Thrice's Come All You Weary.

The Army flew his body home to Tampa on Wednesday, in a casket draped with an American flag.
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Tampa soldier honored with military style procession