When he was a student at Los Osos High School, Dylan Merola wore black and red during school theater productions.
On Tuesday evening, Sept. 21, Merola’s casket passed by his Rancho Cucamonga alma mater, draped in red, white and blue.
A procession honoring Marine Lance Cpl. Merola wound its way through the city and past his high school, enroute from Ontario International Airport to Forest Lawn cemetery in Covina.
Merola, 20, was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26. Two other Marines from the Inland Empire, Lance Cpl. Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui, of Norco, and Cpl. Hunter Lopez, of Indio, were also killed in the suicide bombing. Eight more Marines, an Army soldier and a Navy Corpsman were also killed in the attack, along with 169 Afghan civilians. At least 150 more people were injured in the bombing.
A crowd of about 400 gathered outside Los Osos High with American flags, Marine Corps flags and one or two pro-Donald Trump flags. Most were quiet and serious as they waited for the procession.
It arrived just as the sun set. A member of the Los Osos marching band played taps as the hearse moved by.
At a Sept. 2 Central Park memorial vigil, Merola’s mother, Cheryl Rex said her son always wore military attire as a child.
“He wanted nothing more than to become a Marine,” Rex recalled. “He joined the Marine Corps and proudly served his country to the highest degree.”
According to Rex, Merola had been stationed in Kabul for less than two weeks and was planning to go to college and study engineering.
“When he joined the military I knew that he was going away, but I didn’t imagine that he wasn’t going to come back,” Dakota Mancuso, who said Morela was his best friend, said at the Sept. 2 vigil. “I know you were going out for a purpose, I could never have imagined what purpose found you in Afghanistan. I’m so proud, humbled and inspired by you. You saved so many people and I’m so proud of you for that.”
Merola, a 2019 graduate of Los Osos, worked as a theater technician at the school. At the vigil, Randy Shorts, a teacher at Los Osos, described Merola as a “shy, always smiling” student in his theater class, always dressed in a black shirt and red tie while leading tech for school performances.
“Dylan wanted to join the Marines because he wanted to learn discipline, and to make a difference,” Shorts said.
Merola’s funeral is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 26, at 2:30 p.m. at Forest Lawn mausoleum, 21300 Via Verde St., Covina. The funeral is open to the public, but Merola will be buried afterward in a private service.
Merola is the third of the three California service members killed in the Kabul airport attack to be laid to rest. On Saturday, Sept. 18, Nikou and Lopez were buried in Riverside, after funerals and memorial services in Riverside and Palm Springs, respectively. All three Marines will receive posthumous Purple Heart medals, along with 27 other service members killed or injured at the airport, the Pentagon announced Sept. 14.
Rancho Cucamonga will honor Merola at a future City Council meeting with an Armed Forces banner display, embellished with a gold star, according to Rancho Cucamonga Mayor L. Dennis Michael.
Hundreds are lining up for the funeral procession for Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola in Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) pic.twitter.com/xSgN2D9Sba
— TERRY PIERSON (@Fotogodterry) September 22, 2021
This post first appeared on ocregister.com
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