Sag Harbor NY memorializes fallen hometown hero US Marine LCPL Jordan Haerter

They marched down Main Street toward Long Wharf in Sag Harbor like so many soldiers on a mission to memorialize one of their own.

Hundreds of locals and dozens of veterans took to the streets yesterday to remember Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, just as they had in April when the body of their fallen Marine traveled home after his death in Iraq at age 19.

As rain clouded their already misty eyes, residents watched Haerter's tearful parents unveil a memorial to him, and the Sag Harbor-North Haven Bridge renamed the Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Christian Haerter, who wore his son's dog tags, said the event was as much a "celebration of the spirit of the community that molded" Jordan as it was a memorial to a man and a Marine.

The monument, organizers said, is made of red granite to symbolize the signature colors of the Marines and of Pierson High School, from which Jordan Haerter graduated in 2006. Overlooking Sag Harbor Bay, the memorial sits on the spot Haerter would go to dream about his future. His family has said he planned to become a Sag Harbor police officer.

"The love and support from Sag Harbor is immeasurable," said Joann Lyles, Jordan's mother. "You are captured in a Norman Rockwell painting."

Attention shifted to the bridge, which was renamed by a state mandate. As Haerter's comrades from the North Carolina-based 1st Battalion, 9th Marines cut a red ribbon opening the renamed bridge, a green Vietnam-era helicopter hovered above.

The restored chopper is now a "traveling memorial," said Alan Weiss, the Cutchogue veteran who rebuilt it. Because of the bad weather, the aircraft almost didn't fly, Weiss said. He and other volunteers missed breakfast with the visiting Marines yesterday morning while waiting hours for fog to pass so they could make their special appearance.

"It's an honor for us," Weiss said. "It's an emotional thing for me because he's a former Marine and he's local."

Haerter died April 22 in a suicide attack in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi. With another soldier, Haerter shot at the driver of a truck filled with explosives that had failed to stop at a checkpoint, officials said. For his actions, which officials said saved the lives of dozens of Marines and Iraq police, Haerter was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and other distinctions.

Lt. Col. Brett Bourne, the unit's commanding officer, said he was overwhelmed by the support from Sag Harbor residents after Haerter's death, the battalion's first combat casualty since the Vietnam War.

In an interview, Bourne said because his family moves often, it was important for him to bring his young children to yesterday's event to show them the meaning of community.

"This is clearly a special place, a place that represents the best in America," he said.  -Newsday