Ten years ago, Marine Corps 1st Sgt. Juan Borunda went to Tinley Park to face Phil and Cathy Clarke after their son, Cpl. Kevin Clarke, was killed in action in Iraq.
Borunda had been Clarke’s platoon sergeant and was with Clarke when he died. Just 21 years old, and a graduate of Andrew High School, Clarke had joined the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in Iraq, where he was a rifle team leader. He was on his second tour of duty.
Borunda returned to Tinley Park on Sunday for the eighth annual Kevin Clarke Memorial Ride to be with the family and honor Clarke’s memory. He and other members of Clarke’s platoon were among a few hundred people who gathered in the rain to honor fallen heroes. They rode motorcycles, and some drove vehicles, from Tinley Park American Legion Post 615 to the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.
The memorial ride raises money for the nonprofit The Heart of a Marine Foundation.
Borunda and another platoon member, Patrick Taggart, of Iowa, said they relive Clarke’s death every day. They were in the convoy that was ambushed by al-Qaida.
“It was a day like today, raining and (bad weather) … ,” Taggart said.
Speaking at the cemetery, Borunda said his message is to not get consumed by the “big what if” — constantly asking himself what would have happened had they done something differently that day.
“Just like life, everything is a big ‘What if?’ when something happens,” he said. “Through the years, you kind of take that with you, you let it hold you down. You’ve got to turn it into the ‘What now?’ ‘What are you going to do now?’.”
Many attendees wore Marine Corps patches on their leather jackets, including dozens from the Marines-only Leathernecks motorcycle club.
“Corp. Clarke was one of ours,” said “Big Sean” Henson, president of the Leathernecks Lester Weber Memorial Chapter. “(The Clarke family is) using the tragedy as a positive.”
“Kevin Clarke was a Marine, and he was killed the tour before me,” said “Little John” Santee, of Midlothian. “It’s a way of showing our support in remembrance of our fallen brothers.”
Clarke had always been protective and defended his friends, said his mother, Cathy Clarke. Borunda said that spirit continued even after death. After Clarke was killed, his eyes would not shut, even when the medic tried to close them, Borunda said. The ambush had continued into a five-hour firefight, and only Clarke died. Borunda said from that moment on, he realized Clarke was watching out for them, keeping the rest of them safe.
“I thought he was our guardian angel from them on,” he said.
Gallagher is a freelance reporter.
