The 102nd Georgia solider to die in Iraq returned home for the final time on Thursday evening.
Staff Sergeant Shannon Weaver was supposed to return to the U. S. for an extended leave in July. Last night, he returned a month early, in a flag draped casket. 
A crowd of flag-waving citizens stood on the tarmac at Russell airport in Rome as the plane bearing Weaver's body landed. A motorcycle and police procession escorted the hearse 30 miles to Cedartown. 
Weaver died on May 21 when roadside bombs exploded near his vehicle in southern Baghdad. The explosion also killed Sergeant Brian Ardron of Acworth.
Terry Vaughn, Weaver's mother-in-law, said he wanted the soldiers under him to take leave before he did.
If he would have come home before that, this might not have happened. But it did. And I believe that things happen for a reason. But I, I, I don't know what that reason would be at this time, other than serving his country, and he gave the ultimate sacrifice.Weaver will be buried in a small country churchyard with full military honors on Sunday.
