FALLS CITY - About 1,500 people packed a Falls City auditorium Wednesday for funeral services for a slain Nebraska soldier.

A fellow soldier called 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz of Verdon a valiant soldier who fought to the end.

“A great young officer,” said Capt. Brent Fogleman, rear detachment commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment. “This is a tough one for me because this is one of my own. I needed to be at this one.”

Fogleman, who came to the funeral from Fort Richardson in Alaska, said he and Fritz were “jump buddies,” in line to parachute one after another in airborne exercises.

Fritz died during an ambush. He was among five soldiers killed when militia fighters attacked a provincial government building in Karbala.

People lined both sides of Harlan Street for 10 blocks Wednesday, holding small U.S. flags. Flags also flew from lampposts and front porches, and vehicles pulled off the road and people got out to stand as the funeral procession moved from Falls City to the cemetery.

Fritz was a 2000 graduate of Dawson-Verdon High School and 2005 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. He left for Iraq in October. His 22-year-old brother, Daniel, will graduate from West Point in 2008.

Kris Glathar of Falls City played football and basketball with Fritz at Dawson-Verdon High School.

“Jacob was an easygoing person who would do anything for you,” Glathar said. “He was an all-around good guy and he always did what he believed.”

Fritz was buried in St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church cemetery about six miles north of Falls City.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel and Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy attended the funeral.