Jonathan Ayers and Matthew Phillips fought and died together at a remote base in Afghanistan. On Sunday, their families prayed together and remembered the Army corporals from Georgia killed July 13 in an intense insurgent attack that claimed nine American lives.

Members of the Phillips family were among the hundreds who attended Sunday's funeral and burial of Ayers, a 24-year-old Snellville resident.

Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Bill and Suzanne Ayers and grandmother Pattie Weatherly approach the casket of Cpl. Jon Ayers for one last time during the military burial service Sunday.

Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Bill And Suzanne Ayers are presented with an American flag in honor of their son, Cpl. Jon Ayers,

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As more than 170 motorcycles led Ayers' funeral procession through the Snellville-area streets where the boy had grown into a man, citizens stood in the afternoon heat, saluting and holding flags and homemade signs.

A motorist at a gas station stood at attention with his hand across his heart. A man cutting his lawn stilled the mower. At the Eternal Hills Memory Gardens entrance on U.S. 78, two Gwinnett County firetrucks formed their ladders into an arch that flew the American flag.

Ayers and Phillips served with the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Kunar province. Their families had talked on the phone, but until this weekend had not met in person.

On Sunday, law enforcement and members of the Patriot Guard motorcycle organization escorted the Phillips family from Dawsonville, where Phillips' father, Michael Phillips lives, to Snellville.

"We just wanted to pay our condolences," Michael Phillips said. "Our sons were in the same unit, and both were lost."

Funeral services for Matthew Phillips, of Cumming, will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Coal Mountain Baptist Church, with burial following in the church cemetery, according to Ingram Funeral Home in Cumming.

Sunday's service for Ayers at Zoar United Methodist Church was filled. The standing-room-only crowd spilled outside. More than 330 had signed the guest book an hour before the service began.

Ayers' parents, Bill and Suzanne, were presented a Bronze Star awarded to their son, who was remembered by comrades, instructors and friends as a hero — a gunner who fought valiantly to the end and maintained his position.

After the funeral, motorcyclists from the Patriot Guard, Stone Mountain Harley Owners Group, Christian Motorcyclists Association and America Legion joined law enforcement officers to lead the procession from the church to the cemetery.

"This is the most I have ever seen," said Steve Rowe, state photographer for Patriot Guard. Rowe said he has served on 34 Guard "missions," which lend support to fallen heroes.

The weekend was filled with reminders of war's realities.

On Saturday, an impressive procession escorted the Ayers family and their son's body from Briscoe Field airport in Lawrenceville to Eternal Hills Funeral Home and then to the church, where a visitation was held.

Hundreds filed in to speak to the family of the Shiloh High School graduate whose tour of duty was to end one week after his death.

Ayers and Phillips, 27, were among three metro Atlanta soldiers killed in Afghanistan on July 13. The third, Green Beret Master Sgt. Mitchell Young, 39, died when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Kajaki Sofla. His body was to be flown Sunday to North Carolina, where his family lives.