Solemn ride home for fallen Elgin Marine
Elgin residents, police and fire vehicles and Patriot Guard riders provided a solemn, moving tribute to fallen Marine Cpl. Alex Martinez Friday.
A cortege including dozens of Patriot Guard riders on motorcycles led Martinez’s hearse west on the Jane Addams Tollway Friday afternoon after his body arrived at O’Hare International Airport. The group passed beneath fire trucks and motorists waving flags from tollway overpasses — each one from Roselle Road in Schaumburg to Route 25 in Elgin.
In Martinez’s hometown of Elgin, Douglas Avenue was lined with onlookers, many holding flags and wiping away tears, as one of their own moved closer to Laird Funeral Home. Martinez, 21, was killed in Afghanistan last week.
Family members, dressed in black and holding a Marine Corps flag, watched the hearse travel through downtown, accompanied only by the rumble of motorcycles. Passing through an archway formed by Elgin Fire Department ladder trucks that suspended an American flag high overhead, the procession was even viewed by residents from the top of a nearby parking structure along the route.
The wake was also being held Friday.
A funeral service for Cpl. Martinez will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday at Life Changers International Church, 2500 Beverly Road, Hoffman Estates.