RAYMONDVILLE — A tall gravel stone now stands in the small yard where Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Aguirre played as a little boy.
Yesterday, members of the local American Legion post unveiled the stone bearing the dates of Aguirre’s birth and death.
Aguirre was 20 when he was killed Feb. 26, 2007, after a roadside bomb exploded while he was on foot patrol in Iraq’s Al Anbar province.
On his father’s front yard, about 100 veterans joined community leaders at a flag-raising ceremony where they honored the Marine as their hometown hero.
“I’m real proud,” Arturo Aguirre, 78, said after the ceremony in front of his home on East Gem Avenue. “When my son passed away, I thought people didn’t care. I thought people forgot. But here, people still remember him.”
A color guard fired a 21-gun salute after veterans unveiled the rough granite stone bearing the Marine Corps’ emblem.
“The stone being unveiled today is a way to help us remember Anthony Aguirre,” state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. told the crowd huddled in front of Arturo Aguirre’s front porch. “It hits at the heart of what this country is all about. We lose our sons and daughters in the act of bringing peace to the world.”
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