Before a estimated 1,300 people in the Pryor High School auditorium, Lt. Col. John C. Lile eulogized Brinlee as a self-achiever who was the first to volunteer for duties, a "standard-bearer of the young, military soldier."

Friends, family and fellow soldiers remembered Brinlee in the Mayes County town in which he graduated from high school.

The first member of the Oklahoma National Guard killed in Iraq, Brinlee died May 11 near Alasad when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device, the state Military Department said.

He was 21.

"We all have the capacity to make a difference," Gov. Brad Henry said. "Kyle made a huge difference."

Henry, the commander in chief of the Oklahoma National Guard, said he spoke at the funeral at the request of Brinlee's father, Robert Showler.

"He may not have been the leader in rank," he said of Brinlee. "But from what I'm told, he was the leader in morale-building."

Reared in Adair and Pryor, Brinlee graduated from high school in 2001. He joined the Oklahoma National Guard that same year and was sent to Iraq in February as a member of the 120th Combat Engineer Battalion.

He was the fifth Oklahoma soldier reported killed in Iraq in just more than a month.

The National Guard posthumously awarded

Brinlee was buried at Graham Memorial Cemetery in Pryor.

Lile never met Brinlee. But he related anecdotes he got from the Guard member's relatives, drawing hearty chuckles from the audience.

Nicknamed "Chubs" in the seventh grade, Brinlee matured into a good-looking young man who took primping to the extreme. He scrubbed his teeth with baking soda and peroxide and made girls jealous with eyelashes that he perfected with eyelash curlers, Lile said.

Protective of his women kinfolk, he helped clean his grandmother's house, screened telephone calls from boys for his sister, Kaylee, and took great care of his mother, Tracy, who died Sept. 30 at age 38.

In the field, he placed his comrades at ease with a keen sense of humor, Lile said. He reportedly made another Guard member laugh so hard during a sandstorm that the man swallowed a mouthful of the grains.

Pryor police Sgt. Derek Melton said he had known Brinlee since Brinlee was 14.

Melton, who is also a pastor of Pryor Creek Community Church, said Brinlee liked riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles and working on cars. Brinlee, who had an interest in carpentry, helped install the floor in the high school's new gymnasium, he said.

"When you were around Kyle, he had a special way of making things better," Melton said.

During a visit the day before his deployment, Brinlee told Melton how much he loved his family, Melton said.

"Kyle knew the seriousness of war," he said. "I believe with all my heart he had made things right with God."

Rhett Morgan 581-8395
rhett.morgan@tulsaworld.com