Hamden army captain laid to rest today

Hamden (WTNH) - Hundreds and hundreds of people flooded into the Congregation Mishkan Israel synagogue, a show of support for a soldier who served not only his community and his country, but the whole world.

Captain Benjamin Sklaver grew up in Hamden, then went to Tufts University for a bachelor's and master's degree. Then, he joined the Army reserves. His first tour of duty was in Uganda. His job there was to build infrastructure to bring clean drinking water to villages that didn't have any.

"Ben also felt that he was a combatant for peace, he was not a combatant for war and when he came back he continued to do that work. And he didn't have to," Jake Herrle, a friend of Sklaver's, said.

Back home, that work meant starting a charity called ClearWater Initiatives that raised money to continue improving the water supply in Africa.

Sklaver was called to active duty again in Afghanistan in July and was killed Friday by a suicide bomber in a town near the Pakistani border.

His funeral is fitting for a military hero, but his legacy is that of a humanitarian.

"A lot of people would see what he saw in Africa: the suffering, the disease, and would say 'Someone should do something about that.' Ben did, he was that kind of guy," Herrle said.