Motorcade For Colts Neck Marine Passes Through Howell (Video)

HOWELL, NJ — More than 50 vehicles, including police cars from multiple jurisdictions, ambulances and more than two dozen motorcycles passed through Howell early Monday afternoon as a motorcade escorting the body of U.S. Marine Cpl. Daniel Baldassare made its way to a Freehold Township funeral home.

Baldassare, 20, of Colts Neck, was killed in the crash of a KC-130 transport plane last week in Mississippi during a training flight, along with 14 other Marines and a Navy sailor. The body of the 2015 Colts Neck High School graduate was flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and the motorcade to escort him home began about 11 a.m., Howell Township police said in a Facebook post.

The motorcade traveled east on Route 195 to Route 9 north, Howell police said. Witnesses said police vehicles and fire trucks were present on overpasses along Route 195 as well, paying tribute to the fallen Marine.

Baldassare was taken to Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home on Elton-Adelphia Road in Freehold Township. His funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday on the football field at Colts Neck High School, and he will receive a burial with full military honors at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown immediately following the funeral.

You can read details and his full obituary here.

The motorcycle escort was provided in part by members of the Strength and Honor Motorcycle Club of New Jersey, as well as members of other veterans' motorcycle groups.

Baldassare, who was stationed in Newburgh, NY, was taking part in a training flight from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina to El Centro, California, to transport personnel and equipment, when the plane crashed.

U.S. Marines who are killed in the line of duty are assigned a Marine whose responsibility is becomes to ensure the return of their body to the family is as uneventful as possible. You can read about that duty and how seriously it is taken here in this article:'Every Marine Is A Brother Or Sister'. U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Pamela Torres spoke to the Patch about her role escorting Marine Cpl. Christopher Monahan Jr. home to Toms River after he was killed in Afghanistan in 2012.

See video of the motorcade for Baldassare taken by the administrators of the Howell Happenings NJ Facebook page"

Photo of U.S. Marine Cpl. Daniel Baldassare, provided by Clayton & McGirr Funeral Home