LAWRENCE, Mass. — The body of a U.S. Marine killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan is returning home to Massachusetts on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that led to America’s longest war.
Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo died in the Aug. 26 bombing near the Kabul airport where people were being evacuated amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. A dozen other U.S. service members and 169 Afghans were killed as people struggled to get into the airport and on flights out of the country.
“She’s coming home on the date, the 20th anniversary of the date, that created the war that cost her life,” Francisco Urena, former state veterans affairs commissioner who is assisting Rosario’s family, said to The Boston Globe earlier this week. “She could be and hopefully is the very last casualty from Afghanistan to come to Massachusetts.”
The 25-year-old, who served with the Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, is scheduled to arrive at Boston’s Logan International Airport around noon.
A procession including Marines, local and state police, firefighters, and city officials will escort the hearse bearing her flag-draped casket to the Farrah Funeral Home in her hometown of Lawrence near the New Hampshire state line.
A funeral Mass will then be held on Monday morning at St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church for Rosario Pichardo’s family and other guests.
On Tuesday, there will be a public wake at Veterans Memorial Stadium next to Lawrence High School, where Rosario Pichardo, who was of Dominican descent, graduated. She’ll be laid to rest at Bellevue Cemetery, in a section reserved for military veterans.
Rosario Pichardo and other Marines killed as they were helping to screen Afghans and others at the gate of the Kabul airport were awarded the Purple Heart last week. Lawrence officials also recently held a vigil in Rosario Pichardo‘s honor attended by her family.
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