ST. PETERS -- Hundreds of mourners this morning came to honor the memory of an Army Colonel from the St. Louis area killed April 6 in Baghdad.

An open-casket funeral service for Col. Stephen Scott, 54, was held at the First Baptist Church of Harvester in St. Peters. Scott was remembered as a man who dedicated his life to the Army.

Friends and family described him as a daredevil who was mischievous growing up and loved racing cars.

A burial procession followed. He was to be buried at the Jefferson Barracks Cemetery.

"If you knew Steve, you knew he wasn't perfect," said the Rev. David McAlpin, the pastor of the First Baptist Church who gave the eulogy. "Can I have an Amen on that."

The congregation chuckled. McAlpin said that Scott was a leader who cared deeply for his fellow soldiers.

On March 23, McAlphin said, Scott sent him a note describing a mortar attack that killed four of his fellow Army soldiers. In the note, Scott said, "I am well and I am not alone or afraid."





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An Army colonel with ties to the St. Louis area was killed Sunday while serving in Iraq, according to his family's pastor.

Col. Stephen Scott, 54, was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad overseeing the transition of security forces to the Iraqi government, said the Rev. David McAlpin of the First Baptist Church of Harvester in St. Charles. He had been working at the Pentagon in recent years, but grew up in the St. Louis area.

Scott was exercising Sunday in the protected Green Zone when the building was struck by mortar fire and he was killed, McAlpin said the family was told by military officials.

A military official said Sunday that two U.S. soldiers died and 17 were wounded in an attack on the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government headquarters in central Baghdad, The Associated Press reported. The Department of Defense had not identified those victims as of Monday night.

Scott received the Bronze Star in 2003 for his service as a battalion commander during a previous tour in Iraq, a Department of Defense website says.

According to the transcript of a February teleconference posted on the website, Scott was working to help equip the Iraqi army. He said he had been struck by the positive relationships he'd established with Iraqis in a short amount of time.

"I've managed to actually make friends with the Iraqis, and they're so anxious to embrace not only our know-how and the way we've established our procedures and doctrine and training and leadership capabilities, but also just the way we engage with each other," he said, according to a transcript posted at defenselink.mil.

"It's been a remarkable experience for me in the two and a half months that I have been here. ... I'm real excited about what the future brings for Iraq and their capability to stand themselves up as an Iraqi army."

Scott says that he "spent the last two and a half years up in Washington doing what I thought was important for the U.S. forces, but having come over here and spending a lot of time with my partners in the Iraqi army, I'm 100 percent behind what we're doing. They're on track. They're on schedule. Their hearts are in the right places."

Scott had written a letter to McAlpin on Easter and said he was coming back to the United States in July. He also sent a bulletin from church services he attended.

McAlpin described Scott as a goal-oriented man who loved to learn.

"He was quite outgoing. He was very easy to get along with," McAlpin said.

McAlpin said Scott's funeral likely will take place next week, and that Scott is survived by two adult children who live in the St. Louis area.