Our walk today was dedicated in honor of:
Marine Sgt Eriq Aquino, Age 22 of Yuma, AZ.
Died Dec. 14, 2023
Eriq Joel Sapp Aquino, age 22, stationed in Yuma, Arizona Marine Air Base passed away on Thursday, December 14, 2023. Eriq Joel was born in Los Angeles, California to Jewel Sapp and Jose Aquino. Sgt Eriq Joel Aquino graduated high school in Lincoln City, Oregon and went straight to Marine boot camp. He had his 18th birthday in bootcamp. He was stationed in MCAS Yuma. Because his heart was always in San Diego, he volunteered and went on 5 different deployments. He loved the outdoors as much as he loved his family and his 2 siblings, Ronny and Celina.
Since Eriq was 4 years old, he always wanted to be a Marine. He wore camo every day. He carried toy guns and climbed on everything. Every year for his birthday and Christmas, all that was on his wish list were nerf guns and anything military related.
He had a heart of gold and was always ready to lend a helping hand. He was a Mama’s boy and he was proud of it too. He constantly called home because visits were limited, especially for long distance.
Eriq call sign was “Shank” because a fellow female Marine got assaulted by a civilian holding a shank. Eriq grabbed the shank from him and held it to his neck until police authority came to the scene. We never found out about it until after his service. There were many wonderful stories from his brothers and sisters he served with that were shared with us. I am beyond proud of him. I always told him that, and I wish I could have said more.
He was promoted to Sergeant at the age of 22; he loved the Marine Corps. I want to honor him. I want to continue his legacy and not let his death die in vain. I want to honor all of the 22 a day and raise awareness and prevention.
California was home. His resting place is with his family.
Not a day goes by when you are not loved and missed.
It was a great honor to walk 22 hours, 40.70 Miles with Marine Sgt Eriq Aquino. We started our walk at 6am on Saturday morning. The temp. was in the 30’s and as we walked we watched the sun come up. Our first stop was the Veterans Memorial Park where we read some names on the Memorial Wall of our Fallen Brothers. We then continued North and walked all the way out to Interstate 40. We then headed back South and and turned at the Bakery and walked over to West Ave where we continued to walk South. We made a turn on Miller Ave and then walked into Holiday Hills where we walked by the lake. We took a lunch break at the house and then continued out walk. Later that evening it started to rain. We wanted to continue our walk without getting wet so we walked over by Kroger’s where their is a sidewalk that is covered for quite a ways. We stayed dry for the most part. We ventured away a few times and then it would start raining again so it was nice to be able to continue our walk. We did get to meet a few people out and about at 2am. We got to explain what we were doing to several people. My friend Robert was wanting to walk with us but he ended up being sick so wasn’t able to join us. I want to thank everyone who honked, waved, and saluted in helping us honor this hero. We had a new record of 1.339 honks. It was amazing. Thank you.
