http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/guestbook.aspx?n=gerardo-campos&pid=157940210
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com
A fallen Florida soldier came home in a flag-draped coffin Tuesday to a somber hero's welcome from 200 U.S. forces and weeping family members.
Army Spc. Gerardo Campos, 23, of Homestead was killed in an attack by enemy forces in Maiwand, Afghanistan, on June 2.
An infantryman, he was on his first overseas deployment from his U.S. Army base in Washington state and left behind a wife and 10-month-old daughter.
Tuesday, the military brought his remains home from the military morgue at Dover AFB, Del., to a Florida National Guard honor guard and phalanx of Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy and Marines lining the Homestead Reserve Air Base landing strip. Also on hand were members of the commando unit based here, Special Operations South.
It was pin-drop silent as troops offloaded Campo's coffin from a contract jet — except for a few wails from family members as the honor guard carried the coffin past to an awaiting hearse.
Campos' kin turned out in yellow T-shirts symbolic of the traditional homecoming ribbon. Funeral arrangements were incomplete but planned for later in the week.
Tuesday's was the first return of a fallen Florida son to Homestead, a base with some 700 Pentagon workers, for ceremonial honors since the summer of 2010, said base spokesman Timothy Norton.
Army Spc. Gerardo Campos, 23, of Homestead was killed in an attack by enemy forces in Maiwand, Afghanistan, on June 2.
An infantryman, he was on his first overseas deployment from his U.S. Army base in Washington state and left behind a wife and 10-month-old daughter.
Tuesday, the military brought his remains home from the military morgue at Dover AFB, Del., to a Florida National Guard honor guard and phalanx of Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy and Marines lining the Homestead Reserve Air Base landing strip. Also on hand were members of the commando unit based here, Special Operations South.
It was pin-drop silent as troops offloaded Campo's coffin from a contract jet — except for a few wails from family members as the honor guard carried the coffin past to an awaiting hearse.
Campos' kin turned out in yellow T-shirts symbolic of the traditional homecoming ribbon. Funeral arrangements were incomplete but planned for later in the week.
Tuesday's was the first return of a fallen Florida son to Homestead, a base with some 700 Pentagon workers, for ceremonial honors since the summer of 2010, said base spokesman Timothy Norton.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/12/2845228/florida-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan.html#storylink=cpy
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