R.I.P. Cpl. Jonathan D. Porto

Marine Cpl. Jonathan D. Porto
Died March 14, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

26, of Largo, Fla.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died March 14 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

(The following was taken from www2.tbo.com of Mar. 22, 2010) TAMPA - A fleet of law enforcement escorted the body of a Marine killed in Afghanistan from at MacDill Air Force Base to St. Petersburg.

Members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Largo Police Department followed the hearse carrying Cpl. Jonathan Porto to Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, 2201 Martin Luther King St. N.

The procession crossed Gandy Bridge into St. Petersburg.

The procession left from MacDill's Bayshore Boulevard gate toward Gandy Boulevard. Then it traveled west across Gandy Bridge to Fourth Street North, south to 22nd Street North, west to Martin Luther King Street and north to the funeral home.

Porto, of Largo, was in a convoy in the Helmand province of Afghanistan on March 14 when the truck he was in went off course and tumbled, according to relatives. He got caught underneath and was killed. He was 26.

He was a small-arms repair technician assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Porto joined the Marines in March 2008 and was promoted to corporal Dec. 1. That month, he deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

One of eight siblings, Porto and his wife, Rachel, were married about 10 months ago. Their daughter was born in January; Porto never got a chance to hold his daughter.