Fallen Marine Honored in Los Alamitos

Los Alamitos - Family and friends honored a Marine from Temecula who was killed in Afghanistan while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The body of Cpl. Christopher G. Singer was flown into the Los Alamitos Army Airfield, Joint Forces Training Base, in Orange County today.

According to retired Lt. Col. Tom Lasser, who coordinated the arrival ceremony, a chaplain joined Singer's family and friends to receive the fallen Marine's flag-draped coffin. It was escorted to a Laguna Hills mortuary by the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle club whose members pay tribute to servicemen and women, as well as firefighters and police officers, killed in the line of duty.

Singer's funeral is set for Feb. 3.

The Marine died with five comrades in a helicopter crash in Helmand province on Jan. 21. He had been assigned to the 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Expeditionary Force, based at Twentynine Palms.