Updated at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 15, 2017
The remains of a Marine killed in a tanker plane crash last month in Mississippi arrived Tuesday in San Diego ahead of his burial later this week at Miramar National Cemetery.
Sgt. Chad Elliott Jenson, a Redondo Beach native, had strong San Diego ties after he graduated from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and served at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, said Laura Herzog, the founder and executive director of the group Honoring Our Fallen.
He later transferred to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and it was while stationed there that Jenson died July 10 when he was one of 16 marines aboard a KC-130 Hercules tanker that went down in western Mississippi. Jenson’s family chose to bury him in Miramar because of his strong Marine ties to the area and because his wife lives in the area, Herzog said.
His remains are expected to arrive about 11 a.m. Tuesday at Lindbergh Field, then be taken to El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, where they will be held until his services on Friday.
His remains arrived about 11 a.m. at Lindbergh Field and were taken via motorcade to El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, where they will be held pending his services on Friday.
“We reach out to the community to ask for your support lining the route with flags to honor this hero as he is returned home,” Herzog said.
Jenson’s family and his remains will be escorted from the airport to the cemetery by the California Highway Patrol and Patriot Guard motorcycle riders. Those wishing to line the route were asked to do so just outside of the airport or on Carroll Canyon Road just outside the entrance of El Camino Memorial Park.
— City News Service