SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- The body of the second San Diego sailor killed on the USS Fitzgerald is now home. 10news anchor Brian Shlonsky was there as the body of Shingo Douglass was met at the airport by family members and Patriot Guard riders.
More than 200 riders showed up here to this park to escort Shingo Douglass to his final resting place. One sailor showed up by herself, to pay her respects.
She stood alone, but her salute was powerful enough to represent the entire United States Navy.
“I think they are incredibly brave, I don’t know what I would have done in that situation," said Jessica Johnson, an interior communications electrician with the Navy. "So I think more people should have been out here saluting him.”
Saluting Douglass as his family escorted his body from the airport to his final resting place, Johnson said, “I’m so sorry for your loss, but your son is incredibly heroic.”
Douglass was one of the seven sailors killed on the USS Fitzgerald when the Navy destroyer collided with a cargo boat off the coast of Japan.
"They’re a little sad, you get really close to these people out at sea, it’s like losing a family member," she said.
Many of the Patriot Guard riders are veterans themselves.
“It truly is an honor for us to get to do this," said Lorenzo Lizarraga.
On Wednesday Chula Vista native Carlos Sibyan received the same welcome.
"(The family) lost a loved one, we lost a brother, our nation lost a soldier," Lizarraga said.
Sibyan was killed in the same crash as Douglass.
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