What you need to know ahead of memorial for fallen Sacramento-area Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee

Large attendance is expected Saturday at the memorial service for fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee as people from around the region are invited to gather and remember Roseville’s “hometown hero.”

Gee, 23, was one the 13 U.S. military service members killed by a suicide bomber outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26. Gee and others were outside the airport’s Abbey Gate working to help evacuate Americans and Afghan refugees. Her death hit home in Placer County, where she grew up and graduated from Oakmont High School before enlisting in 2017.

The memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bayside Church Adventure Campus on Stanford Ranch Road in Roseville. The church has been the venue of numerous law enforcement funerals over the years, including that of fallen Galt Police Officer Harminder Grewal earlier this week.

A procession for Gee’s remains was held Thursday, escorting her body from Sacramento International Airport to Mount Vernon Memorial Park in Citrus Heights.

Gee became nationally known following her death after a photo she posted on social media showed her cradling an Afghan baby. Gee captioned the photo “I love my job.”

“She was an amazing sister, daughter, wife, aunt, niece, cousin, friend, and she was one pretty bad ass Marine,” her sister, Misty Fuoco, said at a vigil in Roseville this month.

“She was proud to be a Marine, and she was proud of what she was doing in Afghanistan,” she said.

This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 1:25 PM.