FALLEN HERO Buddhist funeral for Bayside soldier

The parents of a Bayside soldier, killed in a non-combat incident in Iraq, bid their final farewell to Specialist Chirasak Vidhyarkorn during a Buddhist ceremony with full-military honors in Elmhurst.
“He was my hero, and he will be in our minds forever,” said his somber mother, Saipan Vidhyarkorn, at her son’s wake on Friday, October 12.
The 22nd Queens soldier to be killed in Iraq, Vidhyarkorn, 32, died on September 29 in Diwaniyah, while serving as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Saipan Vidhyarkorn, her husband Charoon, and Vidhyarkorn’s 26-year-old sister Sirachat and 24-year-old brother Pasapong traveled from their native Thailand for the four-day memorial service, and they planned to bring Vidhyarkorn’s cremated remains back with them to their homeland.
At the wake, standing in front of the flag-draped coffin flanked by tropical plants, Charoon Vidhyarkorn told fellow mourners in Thai that he was proud of his son’s military service, a translator said.
“His son was born here. He is an American citizen. He served his country,” Pairoj Pugsasin translated for Vidhyarkorn’s father. “He feels sad but he is proud.”
Born in the Bronx, Vidhyarkorn and his family moved to back to Thailand, where his parents were originally from, as a child. After attending college in his homeland, he moved to Queens at the age of 24 and stayed with his aunt, uncle and younger cousins in Bayside.
“My aunt and uncle loved him like another son,” said cousin, 21-year-old Ron Kunatee.
Vidhyarkorn enlisted in the Army as a 92W Water Purification Specialist in 2000, and completed a yearlong tour of Iraq in 2003. During his distinguished military career, Vidhyarkorn was awarded 10 medals and ribbons, including a Bronze Star. Vidhyarkorn was later promoted to Sergeant posthumously.
He was redeployed to Iraq in February of this year, and relatives said that he was expected home six days before he was killed - in time for his cousin’s 21st birthday on Columbus Day.
“He would have been home,” Ron Kunatee said of his cousin who he called “Chris” or “V.” Ron Kunatee, a student at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), where Vidhyarkorn earned his master’s in engineering, credited his cousin with countless hours of homework help.
“[Vidhyarkorn] was the type of person that everyone wants to be,” said Kunatee’s 18-year-old sister Paula, a freshman at Queensborough Community College.
Paula had been too upset to formally say goodbye to Vidhyarkorn before he left for Iraq but took solace in phone conversations she had with her cousin while he was overseas.
“I said I loved him every time,” she said.
During the services on Friday at the Gerard J. Neufeld Funeral Home, family members presented orange robes to Vidhyarkorn in hopes that his next life would be harmonious. Then four Buddhist monks, who attended all four ceremonies, prayed over the robes.
Afterward, Vidhyarkorn’s mother, who had remained dry-eyed for most of the service, walked up to her son’s coffin, placed one hand on the casket and cried.
On Monday, October 15, Army officials presented Saipan Vidhyarkorn with a folded flag for her son, as mourners tossed wrapped coins in the air for the fallen soldier - wishing him prosperity in reincarnation.
When asked how Vidhyarkorn’s parents are dealing with the loss of their son, Ron Kunatee said, “They are very upset … But I’m sure he would want them not to cry.”