BOSTON -- The casket of Army Sgt. Benjamin Sherman arrived on a horse-drawn carriage at the Second Church of Plymouth in Manomet.

Newscenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that dozens of mourners clutching small American flags stood in a drenching rain for hours to pay their last respects, as firefighters struggled to control a giant flag doing battle with powerful gusts of wind.

The paratrooper, 21, left a wife who is pregnant with their first child.

Barbara Garcia did not know Sherman or his family, yet the somber scene unfolding before her moved her to tears.

"It's just so sad for the family, and the mother who's going to have a baby. Everything is just very sad," said Garcia.

Sherman died on Nov. 4, when he jumped into a river in Afghanistan to save a fellow soldier. The ferocious current killed them both.

"When I found out that he was in the service I thought that it was a great choice for him. He really wanted to do something great for his life and he did," said Alex Tripp, who grew up with Sherman.

"He was over there for a reason, and he was doing what he thought was right," said Jamie Cumm, another lifelong friend.

Veterans who have done their duty also attended the funeral.

"When a soldier dies, whether it's by gunfire or an unfortunate accident, it's still a death of a soldier, and that soldier has served our country," said Howard Shrut, a Patriot Guard Rider who is a Vietnam veteran.

"They're giving their life to protect us, so the least that we can do is show that we appreciate what they did. It's a shame they're coming home like that, but that's war," said Joseph Ensko, also a Patriot Guard Rider.

Sherman's family decided against burial in a military cemetery and instead chose the graveyard adjacent to their church as his final resting place.