BEDFORD – Mourners at the Bethany Covenant Church faced a large framed portrait of Army Spc. Jared Davison in his West Point uniform, as they listened Monday morning to numerous speakers praise Jared and his family.

“When I heard the news, a dagger hit my heart because of what this family has to endure,” said Pastor Mike Ortel, who said church members are “proud of that boy and proud of his parents.”

Friends and family gathered Monday to remember Davison, the young Milford soldier who died at his Army base earlier this month. Davison, 24, died at Fort Eustis, Va., on Sept. 4. A cause of death has not yet been determined.

A life sketch printed in the funeral program given out to mourners said a Davison family trip to Sequoia National Park in California inspired Jared to join the Army after the 16-year-old discovered that one of the park’s first superintendents was Capt. Charles Young, a black cavalry officer and a 1884 graduate of West Point.

Pastor Dedrick Blue spoke of the concept of “sacred honor” taken from the closing lines of the Declaration of Independence in which the Founding Fathers pledged “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” to the cause of independence.

Jared “was bathed in sacred honor,” and he did not acquire it from Sequoia National Park, but from his family, Blue said, a family that taught its children “you have to work for everything you have in life.”

Jared knew how to bridge diverse cultures and had a “smile borne of true compassion and genuine love,” he said.

Pastor Harry Sabnani, youth director for the Northern New England Conference of Seventh-day Adventist, told the gathering that “I am so glad to have known Jared and to have known this family.”

Jared attended the church’s Lawrolweld Camp in Maine, and Sabnani recalled a story from camp about Jared mopping the kitchen floor near a huge green pepper that was waiting to be chopped.

The boy put down the mop and cut the pepper “with such speed and precision” that the cook asked a less adept adult to mop the floor so Jared could help with food preparation.

“Jared loved service projects, and that’s why he joined the armed forces,” Sabnani said. “He loved helping out. He had a particular genius that made me smile.”

Brian Carl Story was Jared’s best friend at West Point, and he told the mourners that Jared was “the most loyal friend I ever had. He always had my back.”

An Army honor guard and bagpipes greeted mourners at the church, and police escorts accompanied the funeral entourage to the state Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, where Davison was buried with military honors Monday afternoon.

His awards and decorations include the Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 304, or kcleveland@cabinet.com.