Crystal Lake Marine honored with military funeral, burial
Capt. Nathan McHone was a good friend, a hard worker, a Marine.
The 29-year-old graduate of Crystal Lake South High School was laid to rest Sunday with full military honors after his death in a Jan. 19 helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
Among the dozens to travel to Crystal Lake for services Sunday was former high school classmate Brandon Clouse. He said he played basketball with McHone in high school and remembered his friend as a great guy.
“It’s tough to see anyone pass away,” Clouse said. “But it’s always tough when you see people like Nate — people who are kind and warm and friendly and joyful.”
Members of the Illinois Patriot Guard Riders holding U.S. flags stood at attention lining the sidewalk to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Crystal Lake. They later escorted McHone to Windridge Memorial Park Cemetery in Cary for his burial.
Senior ride captain Rob Curcio of Lake Forest said the act of standing so solemnly, holding the flags, allows people a neutral way to pay their respects and gives community members a chance to be involved in honoring McHone.
“The only thing that we have to offer these people in these horribly tragic times ... is this outpouring of support to help them at least open the doors to some sort of a healing process,” Curcio said.
Curcio and other members of the Patriot Guard also took part in the services for North Aurora National Guardsmen Spc. Christopher A. Patterson, who died Jan. 6 in an explosion in Afghanistan and whose funeral was Jan. 21. A pin with a photo of Patterson, 20, in his camouflage uniform was one of a handful decorating Curcio’s jacket during McHone’s ceremony.
The funeral ended Sunday with a bagpiper presiding over the dignified transfer of McHone’s flag-draped casket to a waiting hearse. Marines in full uniform served as pallbearers, quietly saluting their fallen brother.
Crystal Lake resident Kathy Neal never knew McHone but saw a processional Friday going down Randall Road as it carried McHone’s body past thousands of community members at Crystal Lake South High School and decided to attend his funeral.
McHone’s mother has been on Neal’s mind since she heard about his death.
“From one mother to another, I realized her son was willing to die for me, and I was really moved by that,” Neal said.
McHone was commissioned into the Marine Corps in September 2005 and joined his final helicopter squadron in 2009. He was based in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and was serving his second deployment in Afghanistan when he died with five others from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, known as the Red Lions.
A statement issued by the NATO international military coalition said there was no enemy activity in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan when McHone’s helicopter crashed. Officials were investigating some type of technical fault.
McHone’s military awards include two Air Medals, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and the NATO ISAF Medal.
Curcio, of the Patriot Guard, said the deaths of two local servicemen in such rapid succession serves to remind people how fully engaged the war in Afghanistan remains.
“We still have troops in harm’s way every day,” Curcio said.