Locust Valley Marine reservist's body back in U.S. at Dover base

The remains of Cpl. Robert Hendriks, a Locust Valley Marine reservist who was killed Monday in an attack outside Kabul, were back in the United States on Thursday evening.

Hendriks, 25, and two other Marine reservists — one of them a member of the New York City Fire Department — were fatally wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb near the main U.S. base near Kabul, according to the Pentagon.

 A plane carrying the Marines made a stop in Germany, and was scheduled to touch down Thursday evening at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Air Force spokeswoman Christin Michaud said before the plane arrived. 

Hendriks' body was to be escorted on the flight by his only sibling, a fellow Marine who had only recently arrived in Afghanistan to begin a combat tour.

Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, was scheduled to be on hand  to console relatives of the Marines. Troops were to  hand-carry the three flag-draped cases containing the Marines' remains from the hold of the plane as part of the military’s traditional “dignified transfer.” 

Hendriks' mother, Felicia Arculeo of Freeport, traveled to the airport to greet her deceased son and Joseph Hendriks, her only other child, she said in a text message to Newsday.

The attack also killed New York City firefighter Staff Sgt. Christopher K.A. Slutman, 43, whose Defense Department hometown of record was Newark, Delaware, and Sgt. Benjamin S. Hines, 31, of York, Pennsylvania.

Michaud said autopsies will be performed on the soldiers before their remains are to be released to their families, a process that is expected to extend into the weekend.