Arrangements for Joseph Lemm, Air National Guardsman Killed in Afghanistan

The body of Joseph Lemm, the Air National Guardsman killed in Afghanistan, returns to the United States Monday afternoon. Members of his family, the New York Air National Guard’s 105th Airlift Wing and the New York Police Department will be at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, according to ABC7NY.com.

Lemm, 45, was killed in a Dec. 21 suicide bombing in Afghanistan outside Bagram Air Base. A technical sergeant with the 105th Base Defense Squadron, he was a 15-year veteran of the NYPD. Five other Americans killed in the bombing included New York Guardsman Staff Sgt. Louis Bonacasa, 31, of Long Island.

Visitation for Lemm will be at Saint Anthony of Padua Church in West Harrison from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. The funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 10 a.m. Wednesday will be held with full military and police honors. He will be buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, according to the police department.

Lemm, who grew up in Beemer, Nebraska, is considered a hometown hero there as well as in West Harrison. His mother, Shirley Lemm, told Omaha.com that “I always knew, from the time he was 10 years old, he was going to be big — a policeman, a fireman, a soldier.”

According to Omaha.com, Lemm served six years in the Air Force after high school. He joined the NYPD in 2000. Shirley Lemm said her son rejoined the military in the Air National Guard so he could better provide for his family. He had done a tour in Iraq and this was his second deployment to Afghanistan.