One day years ago, Juan Carlos Lopez walked into his nephew’s bedroom and noticed a day circled on his calendar.
Graduation.
“Uncle J.C.,” Lopez recalled his then-teenage nephew telling him, “when I graduate, I’m letting you know now I’m going to be a Marine.”
Among the many reasons U.S. Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez was beloved, he never rescinded a promise, family and friends recalled Saturday, Sept. 18, during a memorial service at the Palm Springs Convention Center honoring and thanking the fallen 22-year-old Indio native.
“Hunter always had a plan and was able to execute,” longtime friend Nick Conway said. “There aren’t many people from our generation that have that strength and discipline. He was the kind of friend you always wanted by your side, the kind of friend who would do anything for you.”
Heroism marked the final moments of Lopez’s life, Riverside County Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Brause said Saturday.
The 2017 La Quinta High School graduate was one of 13 U.S. service-members killed in an attack at the Kabul airport last month as the U.S was pulling out of Afghanistan. Two other Inland Empire Marines, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, of Norco; and Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, of Rancho Cucamonga, also were killed.
Brause and others noted that, on that afternoon, Lopez was rescuing young girls from a rioting mob before the blast took his life.
“He died a hero saving the lives of those he did not know,” Conway said.
Saturday’s memorial began with a prayer and a song.
The hundreds of family members, friends, law enforcement officials and service men and women in attendance, as well as those watching a livestream on YouTube and Facebook, then watched a slideshow of photos chronicling Lopez’s 22 years, set to the alternative rock songs, “Mr. Brightside,” by The Killers; and “Best of You,” by Foo Fighters.
“There aren’t enough words to express how much of a hero my nephew was,” Juan Carlos Lopez said, “not only to his country, but to his extended family and friends.”
Lopez, the eldest of three children, was part of a special crisis response team sent to provide security and help State Department officials process thousands of people a day at the airport gates. His mother, Alicia Lopez, is a Riverside County deputy sheriff and Riverside Sheriff’s Association board secretary. His father, Riverside County Sheriff’s Capt. Herman Lopez, is La Quinta’s police chief.
In a statement, the Lopez family said news of their son’s death was “the news that no parent wants to receive.”
“Our family is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and condolences we’ve received in the wake of Hunter’s sudden passing,” the couple added. “Please know that Hunter wore the United States Marine uniform with love and pride, and it is very apparent that the community will never forget his sacrifice and our family.”
A history buff who loved the burger chain Rally’s, the popular video game “Call of Duty” and Star Wars, Hunter Lopez always wrote his grandparents in Spanish because he knew they would have difficulty reading English, Juan Carlos Lopez said Saturday.
His nephew always signed those letters: Cazadora, the Spanish word for hunter.
“I watched this young man go from lightsabers and Nerf guns to having his whole life set before my eyes,” Juan Carlos Lopez said.
Hunter Lopez was a sheriff’s explorer scout with the Palm Desert Station and after enlisting was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. He planned to join the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department like his parents after his deployment ended, according to a statement from the Riverside Sheriff’s Association.
A procession Thursday, Sept. 16, drew residents with American flags on a route from a Cathedral City mortuary, past the Palm Desert Sheriff’s station and, finally, to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in La Quinta. A similar procession passed Friday, Sept. 17, by three Coachella Valley schools that Lopez once attended.
Earlier this month, Indio staged a candlelight vigil for Lopez in front of Indio City Hall.
U.S. Marine Cpl. Michael Chambers met Lopez at the recruiting station in Palm Desert and said Saturday the two became inseparable in the years that followed.
Lopez – four years Chambers’ junior – could recite war movies scene-for-scene, his comrade recalled.
“He idolized men that made sacrifices for others,” Chambers said. “Those huge men of high caliber. I don’t think Hunter realized that he became that, and that his heroes would become his peers.”
Nikoui, the Norco Marine, was honored Saturday morning at a memorial service at Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in Riverside. Merola, the Rancho Cucamonga native, will be saluted with a Tuesday, Sept. 21, procession. His memorial service is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 26.
Staff writer David Downey contributed to this report.