Blake Hall
News that Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin was slain during a rocket attack in Iraq shook his hometown of Temecula, California. When Cardin’s funeral procession escorted his casket down Highway 74 East, hundreds of community members lined the streets to give Cardin a proper send off.
Cardin is the second American service member and first Marine to die fighting the Islamic State. He was killed on March 19 while protecting a secret U.S. military fire base in northern Iraq. Since the attack that took Cardin’s life, that same fire base was assaulted a second time by ISIS forces.
The fallen Marine’s body arrived in his hometown on March 21, but his remains didn’t arrive at March Air Reserve Base until March 26. When his funeral procession took off the same day, hundreds of mourners were waiting with American flag and signs to show their support and thanks.
The woman who organized the event told local news that she did not know Louis Cardin personally.
Kristina Hammock, 38, of Temecula, organized the group near the Wienerschnitzel. She said she heard of Cardin’s death on the news and felt it was necessary to pay homage to a hero from her town.
“I just thought to myself, ‘We have to do something. This is our Marine,'” she said. “We have to hold up our duty to them just as they have for us. So I just went on Temecula Talk (Facebook group) and organized this event.”
Hammock said she was expecting a large turnout.
“We definitely expected this,” she said. “The Temecula community in and of itself is a very large military community, not just the people who live there but also the business owners. It’s all very supportive of the military and the families.
Community members will also pay their respects to Cardin at a public, closed casket viewing on April 1.
RIP Staff Sgt. Cardin. Semper Fi.