Folks with flags put their hands to their hearts and first-responders—including local state troopers, Putnam sheriff's deputies and Brewster firefighters—saluted as a hearse carrying Staff Sgt. Todd J. "T.J." Lobraico Jr. passed through Southeast Wednesday afternoon.
More than 50 people gathered along Interstate 84 and on the Route 312 overpass above at about 4 p.m., on a day that just so happened to be the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Dozens of police vehicles and motorcycles escorted the hearse as it traveled from Stewart International Airport in New Windsor into Connecticut. Lobraico, a member of the New York Air National Guard and a 2008 graduate of New Fairfield High School, was serving his second tour of duty in the Middle East, according to this Danbury News Times story.
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the O'Neill Center on Western Connecticut State University's westside campus, the News Times reports.
"More people should be aware of what's going on overseas," said Ian Bennet, a Carmel resident who is part of the Minutemen, a group dedicated to supporting fallen comrades.
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