Hamden mourns fallen soldier

The flags stand tall at the entrance to Congregation Mishkan Israel as hundreds of mourners make their way inside. 32-year-old Army Captain Benjamin Sklaver was killed by a suicide bomber on Friday while on foot patrol in an Afghan village.

"He was always looking out for others. He was a very caring individual with a great heart, great intellect, wicked sense of humor," Jake Herrle, a friend, said.

And a tremendous sense of duty. After visiting refugees in Uganda, Sklaver set-up a non-profit charity to help get clean water to Africa's poorest.

"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," Herrle said.

And he didn't have to go back to war. Sklaver was deployed to Afghanistan under a stop-loss order.. but we're told, there were other options.

"Ben said there is but I won't do it because it's the right thing for me to do to go there," Sen. Joe Lieberman said.

Sklaver's mother is an attorney who worked with Senator Joe Lieberman. The soldier's fiancee's father was Lieberman's former law partner.

"What do you say to a family, to a fiancee who've lost a brilliant, courageous, gifted young man?" Lieberman said.

This is the first son of Hamden killed at war since Vietnam and the community gave him a proper hero's farewell as the procession left the temple.

It drove past his childhood home blocks away. The police escort then wound it's way past Old Town Hall, officers saluted as the hearse slowly passed beneath a draped American flag.

All the way down Dixwell, mourners lined the street, ordinary citizens taking a moment to pay tribute.

Finally at his alma mater, Hamden High, black bunting hung overhead. The honor guard presented arms and students stood solemn as the hearse passed by.

"He loved his family, he loved his faith, his loved his country," Lieberman said.