HOUSTON The body of a 22-year-old Marine came home to a final salute from friends and family in Willis Monday.
Corporal Joseph Logan, a Willis High School graduate, was killed in a helicopter crash while on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.
He really just wanted to be a Marine. He was always talking about it and always interested in it, and he went to see recruiters and started working out. Just had to be a Marine, Logan s father, Tom Logan, said.
Tom Logan and his wife, Debi, watched in tears Monday as a coffin holding their son s body was unloaded off of a private plane at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Cpl. Joseph Logan belonged to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 363, also known as the Lucky Red Lion, and was based out of Hawaii.
The Logans are a military family. Tom and Debi both served in the Air Force and with the Houston Police Department. His brother, Third Class Petty Officer Tommy Logan, serves in the Navy, and his sister, Pfc. Andrea Logan, is also a Marine.
But Tom Logan said his son almost missed out on his chance to serve, when he suffered a serious cut to his hand shortly after graduating from high school. Joseph Logan s tendons and nerves were severed, and it required surgery and months of therapy for him to regain use of his hand.
Once he did, he enlisted.
On January 19, Cpl. Logan s helicopter crashed into a mountainside in Afghanistan. He was one of six people onboard at the time.
We talked to him that day. We told him we loved him, and we wanted to see him home safe again. And unfortunately, we didn t, Tom Logan said.
Cpl. Logan was scheduled to return from Afghanistan on April 1, 2012.
His family said he was planning to re-enlist.
A visitation was scheduled for Cpl. Logan from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home in Willis on Tuesday.
The funeral will be held Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the North Montgomery County Community Center.
Memorial donations can be made in Joseph Logan s honor to Friends of the Fallen, P.O. Box 2081, Dover Air Force Base, DE 19902.
