There was no 21-gun salute, no chaplain giving a message of God’s provision, no bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”

The formal benedictions for Cpl. Jared Crouch were taken care of a year ago at a joint Fort Lewis memorial service for three soldiers. The Stryker cavalryman was killed June 2, 2007, while serving in Iraq with the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Instead, on Saturday evening, Crouch was honored with a come-as-you-are memorial just for him at the north end of Ruston Way in Tacoma.

There was a diaper box full of candles, a grocery bag stuffed with handheld U.S. flags, and a diverse circle of mourners – a mix of Crouch’s old civilian friends and his Army buddies just home from 15 months of combat.

Over here, his old friends with assorted piercings, dyed hair, mohawk and chains remembered their 21-year-old friend as a free spirit. Crouch was hooked on anime, loved pizza and drove a Ford Taurus with a duct-taped bumper.

“He was my very, very dear friend. And when he died, it hurt so bad I had to do something about it,” said Michelle Zentner of Spanaway, who organized the memorial with her sister Danee Currier.

Over there, his fellow 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment scouts with their close-cropped hair remembered Crouch as a brother and a soldier.

“He did his job, he did what a lot of people wouldn’t have done,” said an emotional Sgt. Don Cunningham. “He gave his life for a purpose.”

Crouch drove a 21-ton Stryker vehicle, no duct tape required.

He was driving the lead vehicle on a mission south of Baqouba when a roadside bomb blew up beneath the truck, barely a month into his deployment. He was the only one killed that day, although a total of 37 soldiers from the 4th Brigade would die during their tour.

Staff Sgt. Sergio Partida, the vehicle commander, had his ribs bruised in the blast. Spc. Eric Garcia took shrapnel to his face, which blinded him for a month, and he was evacuated to Baghdad.

Both men came to Ruston Way on Saturday to pay their respects.

“This is really the first chance I’ve had to say goodbye,” Garcia said.

The choice of settings was meaningful. Crouch used to come down to Ruston Way to watch the sunset, take pictures and horse around with his fellow scouts from Arrow Troop, 1st Platoon.

“He loved the waterfront. He loved Ruston Way,” said his friend Patricia Eaton of SeaTac. She described Crouch as her “rock and shoulder to lean on.”

Not far from the mourners, families played on the beach. A stretch limo glided by with teens on their prom night peeking out the window. A BNSF freight train passed and forced the quiet group to grow quieter still.

None of this detracted from a chance to look back fondly on the young man from Zachary, La., who made friends of all types after being assigned to Fort Lewis in 2005.

“I remember the time we talked Jared into doing the ‘Thriller’ dance,” Garcia said. “It was a real crappy week, and everyone was miserable. But he found a way to make us smile, the way he always would.

“I never met somebody who was less afraid to be himself.”

Matt Misterek: 253-597-8472