Fallen soldier, Staff Sgt. Bryan Hall, was welcomed home today. Hall was returned from overseas to Dover Air Force Base, then flown to Sacramento Executive Airport this morning. A procession followed Hall’s hearse from the airport to south Highway 99 and ended at Elk Grove Funeral Chapel.

Staff Sgt. Hall was killed in Iraq with four other soldiers when an explosive laden truck careened through an Iraqi police headquarters.

Community members lined the freeway and side roads waving flags and welcoming our fallen soldier home; but perhaps the most striking exhibit was the firefighters and apparatus that could be clearly seen atop every freeway overpass on the route. If you knew nothing about what was going on, you knew something significant was happening as you drove down 99 and witnessed firefighters standing atop their apparatus, at attention, aerial booms raised half staff on the fire trucks awaiting Hall’s return. Engines, trucks, ambulances and other apparatus participated from Sac City, Consumnes and Elk Grove fire departments.