By Mira Oberman

ELWOOD, ILLINOIS, US - Dusk fell Saturday on the flag-draped coffin of a young soldier, gunned down while waiting to get a booster shot at Fort Hood, as an honor guard slowly marched Michael Pearson to his grave.

Three times the orders went out - "Ready! Aim! Fire!" - before a single bugler called out Taps across the tombstones at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

The smell of gunpowder lingered as white gloves lifted the US flag up and over Pearson's casket, snapped it into folds and presented it to his family.

The scene played out at similar ceremonies across the United States as the nation mourned the 12 soldiers and one civilian slain in a November 5 rampage which left 42 others wounded.

Major Nidal Hasan, an army psychiatrist who is being investigated for links to militant Islam, has been charged with 13 counts of pre-meditated murder.

Pearson, 22, volunteered last year to join the army and was getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan when he was killed.

He was to engage in some of the most dangerous work there: defusing bombs.

"This was the happiest I'd ever seen my brother," Julie Craig told AFP as she waited for the service to get underway at a funeral home in nearby Joliet, Illinois.

"He'd felt like something was missing in his life and when he joined the army he felt like he had a purpose," Craig said.

"He was going to help people."

Kindhearted, quiet, curious about the world, Pearson was always trying to sort out how things worked, loved playing with his nieces and nephews, according to Craig.

And he was passionate about music, composing his own songs and entertaining his unit with his guitar.

His memorial service opened with a rendition of the Jimi Hendrix version of "The Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem.

"I don't know why this tragic event occurred but I know the world and the 510th Engineer Company has lost a hero," said Captain Jim Pence.

"His courage will be with us when we face the difficult travails ahead." Honor after honor was presented to Pearson's family.

His hometown mayor described a scholarship that had been created at the local high school, the picnic shelter which would carry his name and read the proclamation declaring November 14 Michael Pearson day.

There were gold lapel pins and military commendations and medals. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn was also on hand, telling mourners "this is a profoundly sad day for our state and our nation."

As the white hearse bearing Person's casket made its way slowly to the cemetery hundreds of people lined the streets and rural roads, waving flags and bringing their hands to their hearts and foreheads in salute.