The family of Lawrence Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario mourned as her casket returned to Massachusetts on Saturday.Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario has returned home. The Lawrence Marine's casket — draped in an American flag — touched down at Logan Airport on Saturday.
Rosario was among the 13 service members killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul last month during the final days of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan.
In a ceremony attended by Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey, and other elected officials, Rosario was given military honors by seven Marines as her casket was brought off of a plane at about noon on Saturday.
"We have brought a daughter of the city home," said Lawrence Mayor Kendrys Vasquez.
Rosario's family was stoic as the 25-year-old Marine’s casket was brought off the plane. Rosario's mother laid her head upon it, kissed it and made the sign of the cross.
Then, her grandmother sobbed over the casket and cried out in Spanish.
The Marine sergeant was just five years old on 9/11 — the event that eventually started the War in Afghanistan — and returned home 20 years to the day that the attacks in New York took place.
Many lined the streets of Lawrence carrying American flags, and first responders set up displays on highway overpasses as the procession carrying Rosario's body traveled to the Farrah Funeral Home.
Rosmery Garcia was one of the residents on the streets of Lawrence yesterday. "I personally did not know her, but it does not matter, because she was part of the community," she said.
A public wake will be held in Veterans Memorial Stadium on Tuesday between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
WBZ's Suzanne Sausville (@wbzSausville) reports:
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Written by Chaiel Schaffel