Texas sailor laid to rest
Sailors escort the body of Noe Hernandez into Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mercedes on Thursday. The Weslaco native died last month when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship.
WESLACO — Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Noe Hernandez, the Valley’s own, was laid to rest Thursday with much love and ceremony.
Hernandez was one of seven sailors aboard the USS Fitzgerald who were killed last month when the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal collided with the Navy destroyer off the coast of Japan.
At Thursday’s burial ceremonies at the Weslaco City Cemetery, his wife, Dora Hernandez, gave thanks to the community in English and Spanish for the outpouring of support. She described it as overwhelming.
Hundreds of family and friends, dignitaries, military veterans, Navy personnel and several of Hernandez’s shipmates attended the ceremonies.
“He was a good man,” said shipmate Matthew King, 32, a petty officer first class who came to the Rio Grande Valley to support Hernandez’s family and honor his friend.
King was aboard the Fitzgerald at the time of the collision. His voice trailed off, and his eyes welled with tears as he contemplated the near sinking of the 550-foot vessel.
“I’m dealing with a lot of different emotions,” King said of managing the loss, while searching for the strength to perform his duties. “Right now our rally is, ‘The Fitz will fight again.’ As the ship begins to heal, we will heal with her.”
The Fitzgerald was towed to the American naval base at Yokosuka, Japan, where Navy divers searched for the missing sailors. Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, initiated an investigation into the collision, led by Rear Adm. Brian Fort. There also is a safety investigation, and the U.S. Coast Guard is leading the marine casualty investigation.
Hernandez was a four-year member of the U.S. Army JROTC program at Weslaco High School. It was there that he met Dora, and the pair became sweethearts.
Ana Delgado, 26, remembered when Dora introduced her friends to Hernandez over lunch one day, playing games of “Marco Polo” at the pool, and eating tacos at their favorite restaurant.
Delgado and other former classmates asked Dora permission to make T-shirts featuring Hernandez. She offered them a photo of her husband with their 2-year-old son, Leon, sitting on his lap. Written at the bottom was the epitaph “My heart stays with you all.”
“That was his parting message to Dora and Leon,” Delgado said. “Every time he left that’s what he would tell them.”
Hernandez joined the Navy in 2009, leaving the Valley for ports in Italy, California and finally Japan.
On Wednesday, hundreds of community members attended the wake at San Martin De Porres Catholic Church in Weslaco, offering condolences to the family.
Thursday morning, the community packed Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mercedes for the funeral Mass. Afterward, the procession stopped at Hernandez’s boyhood home, then passed his old high school en route to the cemetery.
At the cemetery, six sailors clad in dress whites carried the casket to its final place. There, Hernandez was accorded full military honors, including a 21-volley salute.
As taps was sounded, Virginia Hernandez-Lozano, Hernandez’s mother, wrapped her arms around a U.S. flag presented to her and wept.
Roses were laid atop the casket adorned with photos of Hernandez with his family. Dora knelt, pressed her fingers to her lips, then touched them to the casket.
“No!” Hernandez-Lozano cried as the casket was lowered into the earth. “My son!”