Las Vegas marine interred at family ranch (Shane Harris)

SAN GERONIMO - A 23-year-old Marine who was killed in Iraq has been laid to rest at his family's ranch in northern New Mexico.

Lance Cpl. Shane P. Harris of San Geronimo was killed Sept. 3 in Al Anbar province while conducting combat operations with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

A few hundred people turned out Tuesday at the Harris ranch to honor the Marine. Friends and family followed a 17-mile funeral procession from Las Vegas to the ranch west of town.

From the Albuquerque Tribune

Community mourns Marine slain in Iraq

ANGEL FIRE — Community members are in mourning with the recent death of longtime Angel Fire Resortemployee Shane Harris, 23, of Las Vegas.

Harris, who worked on ski patrol at AFR for several years, was killed in Iraq on Sunday, Sept. 3, when a roadside bomb detonated as his light armored vehicle passed.

A Lance Corporal in the Marines, Harris was the only one of seven people in the vehicle killed. All six survivors were injured, with two remaining in intensive care at presstime Tuesday.

Harris was less than a month from returning stateside, with an Oct. 1 date set for his arrival in California, according to his father, Pat. He was stationed in the Iraq province of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and is the location of Fallujah, which at one time was a hotbed of Iraqi insurgency.

Read the rest at the Sangre de Cristo Chronicle

Slain Marine made memorial requests

A 23-year-old Marine who was killed in Iraq last week had requested that any memorials be donated to an organization that builds houses in Mexico for the poor.

Marine Lance Cpl. Shane P. Harris of San Geronimo was killed Sept. 3 during combat operations in Iraq’s Al Anbar province.

He was assigned to the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force based in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

In an essay written by his family and published in the Albuquerque Journal on Saturday, family members said they go to Mexico annually to help build houses in impoverished areas with an organization called Casas Por Cristo, which is Spanish for Houses for Christ.

Harris had asked before he died that any memorials be donated to that organization.

A visitation for Harris will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Immanual Lutheran Church in Las Vegas, N.M. Funeral services are set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the family’s home in San Geronimo.

The family plans to bury Harris’ body at its ranch in San Geronimo, a village about 15 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Note: Due to problems with blogger we were unable to post news of the fallen for the last 10 days. This post is part of the update from that period.