Marin soldier's remains escorted to Petaluma

<p>The body of a west Marin County soldier killed in Iraq came home to the North Coast on Wednesday afternoon in a long motorcade greeted by dozens of flag-waving well-wishers.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>A casket containing the remains of Jake Velloza, a 22-year-old Army infantryman from Inverness, was delivered from San Francisco International Airport to a Petaluma mortuary to lie until Saturday funeral services in Olema.</p><p>His mother and father, Bob and Susan Velloza, and his fiancee, Danielle Erwin of Evansville, Ind., held one another and cried outside Parent-Sorensen Mortuary as an Army color guard lifted the flag-draped coffin from a hearse to the strains of bagpipe music and carried it away.</p><p>"There's not really anything I can say," said Erwin, who wore dark glasses and was surrounded by friends. "Nothing will bring him back."</p><p>His parents made no public comments, except to thank the more than 60 motorcycle riders who served as escorts from the airport and the dozens of people who waved from freeway overpasses along the way.</p><p>"It was so emotional for me," a tearful Susan Velloza said.</p><p>His father said he would ride Jake Velloza's Victory motorcycle to the funeral.</p><p>"It's a very sad day for the family, obviously," said Mike Velloza, the fallen soldier's uncle. "He was my brother's only child."</p><p>Velloza, a Tomales High School graduate, was the third Marin County soldier killed in Iraq. Nine others from Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties also have died in Iraq, and at least four from the North Coast have died in Afghanistan.</p><p>Velloza joined the Army in 2006 and was a specialist serving with the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas.</p><p>He was one of two soldiers killed May 2 in Mosul by an Iraqi soldier, according to military spokesmen.</p><p>Visitation at the mortuary will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, with a vigil service at 7 p.m. at St. James Catholic Church in Petaluma.</p><p>Motorcycle groups will provide an escort for the trip to the services Saturday at Sacred Heart Church in Olema. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. at the church.</p><p>Burial will be at the Olema Cemetery on Highway 1.</p><p>On Wednesday, family friend Paul Gallagher stood on a street corner outside the mortuary, waiting with many others for the Velloza motorcade.</p><p>He said people in his small rural community were stunned by the death of the young soldier, a standout high school athlete who played with Gallagher's own son and rode mini-bikes as a kid on their ranch.</p><p>"It's so close to home," said Gallagher of Point Reyes Station. "It is home."</p><p>Another well-wisher, Debbie Foged of Petaluma, who held an American flag, said she was saddened by the growing number of casualties in a war that has dragged on for six years. She wondered if the sacrifice was really changing anything.</p><p>"I know they're over there trying to help us, but sometimes they come home in a box and it just breaks my heart," Foged said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.</p>