LANDOVER HILLS -- Army Staff Sgt. Collin J. Bowen had a certain exuberance that once led him to participate in - and win - a Latin dance contest on a Latin American cruise ship, even though he was one of the only English-speaking passengers on board. The priest at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church invoked this image of Sergeant Bowen at a funeral Mass yesterday for the 38-year-old soldier, who died March 14 in a Texas hospital of complications from injuries suffered in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan.

"Think of Collin dancing in the presence of God," the Rev. Samuel C. Giese told a gathering that included the soldier's wife, three daughters and a large crowd of family, friends and military members. All traveled to Prince George's County on a brilliantly sunny day to say a last goodbye.

Father Giese noted that the Army used to have a recruiting slogan, "There's something special about a soldier," and added, "There was something special about this soldier."

Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown also attended the morning Mass for Sergeant Bowen, a member of the Maryland Army National Guard who was injured in January on a mission he volunteered for just two weeks before he was to return home. The attack in the Khowst province of Afghanistan, which left him with burns over 50 percent of his body, killed three fellow soldiers.

"On behalf of the people of the state of Maryland, I extend to you not only the condolences of grateful people, but also the prayers of grateful people," O'Malley said. "Today we lay to rest one of our best - a courageous and passionate soldier."

Sergeant Bowen, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class, was active in every sense, the governor said. "Collin's notion of a soldier was not a notion that would confine that word to a noun," he said. "He made a lasting difference in this world."

Sergeant Bowen, of Perry Hall, who was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star after he was injured, is the seventh Maryland guardsman to die in combat since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He grew up in Indiana, then joined the Army at age 18, serving in Korea, Japan and other locations. For most of the past two decades, he lived in Maryland. Despite working full time as a software engineer and serving in the Maryland Guard, he studied computer science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, graduating in 2005. He met his wife, Ursula Bowen, when he took her Spanish course at the university; they have a 3-year-old daughter, Gabriela, and he also has two children from a previous marriage, Katlyn, 10, and Erin, 13.

"Collin was 5-feet nothing, 175 pounds of pure muscle and heart," Maj. T.J. Sullins, the soldier's former company commander, said before the Mass. "He never said, 'We can't do it that way, sir,'" Sullins said, blinking back tears. "He said, 'We'll figure out a way to do it, sir.'"

During his year in Afghanistan, Sergeant Bowen was a mentor for the Afghan police and then the Afghan National Army, said Master Sgt. Jeffrey Lowe, the team noncommissioned officer in charge when Sergeant Bowen was deployed overseas. He was particularly conscientious about helping the people of Afghanistan, and especially the children there, Master Sergeant Lowe said. "He was always concerned that we were doing the right thing. That we were not doing the minimum."

At the end of the Mass, mourners sang "America the Beautiful," then filed out between two rows of veterans holding fluttering flags. The Patriot Guard Riders had traveled there by motorcycle at the family's request to pay homage and accompany the funeral procession to Arlington National Ceremony, where Sergeant Bowen was buried.

For years, the soldier and several of his compatriots ran the Army Ten-Miler in Washington together, Maj. Robert Paolucci, Sergeant Bowen's former commander, said outside the church. Afterward, the group would walk to the cemetery in Arlington.

"It was at his request," Paolucci said. "He respected the hallowed grounds and always wanted to be buried there."

rona.marech@baltsun.com