Soldier’s name to be added to monument

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Williams

Saratoga County officials will hold a ceremony Saturday, June 29, to add the name of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony Denier of Mechanicville to the county veterans monument.

The event will take place at 11 a.m. at the monument site in the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in the town of Saratoga.

State Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, will be the main speaker, said county Veterans Committee Chairwoman Mary Ann Johnson, R-Day.

“It’s going to be a wonderful ceremony,” she said at a committee meeting Monday in Ballston Spa.

Denier, 26, was killed by enemy fire Dec. 2 in Afghanistan.

He had been in Afghanistan for only about a month when he was hit by enemy fire while on foot patrol with fellow Marines in the Marjeh District of Helmand Province.

Denier was a rifleman assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.

He was promoted to lance corporal in May 2012. His awards included a National Defense Service Medal, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, according to a statement from the 2nd Marine Division Public Affairs Office.

Denier was buried in the Saratoga National Cemetery after his body was returned to his hometown on Dec. 10 in a motorcade from Albany International Airport. Students at Mechanicville High School and Middle School held flags as the motorcade passed by the school entrance.

His name will be the 977th on the county’s granite monument, which lists every Saratoga County resident to die in U.S. military combat since the American Revolution.