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Community Says Goodbye To Fallen Marine On Wednesday

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Flags will fly at half-staff all across Minnesota on Wednesday in honor of a fallen Marine who will be morning by a community south of the Twin Cities.

It's in honor of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Dale Means died in a roadside bombing earlier this month. He was a 2007 graduate from New Prague High School.

There are more than 1,300 American flags along a seven mile funeral procession route in Means' honor, a fitting tribute. Larry Eckhardt from Illinois is behind this tribute. He drives around the country with his flags and helps honor fallen service men and women.

On Tuesday, more than a 100 volunteers came together to help put up the flags from New Prague to St. Patrick, where Mean's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The volunteers piled flags in the back of their pickups and posted them every twelve feet along both sides of the streets.

"I'm probably the most blessed man in the country because I get to come into these towns at their absolute worst and see it at the absolute best," said Eckhardt.

The funeral of Lance Corporal Dale Means will be the 97th that Larry the Flagman has brought his tribute to town. Donations help pay for his expenses. The volunteers passed a hat around to collect money for the next place Larry takes his tribute to.

The service for Means will be at the Church of St. Patrick of Cedar Lake, where he was married last year to his wife Andrea.

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