The body of a U.S. Marine killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan returned home to Massachusetts on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that led to America’s longest war.
A procession including Marines, local and state police, firefighters and city officials escorted the hearse bearing Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo’s flag-draped casket on Saturday.
Twenty-five year old Pichardo died in the Aug. 26 suicide 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.
A funeral Mass will be held for Pichardo on Monday.