ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A motorcade will bring 29-year-old U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Christopher D. Harding Jr. back to his hometown today after he was killed in a motor vehicle crash last week in Virginia.

Harding was an active duty marine stationed in Virginia and was hit-head on Thursday Chesterfield County by an alleged drunk driver while riding with his motorcycle club, the Warthogs MC.

“He was a wonderful and caring young man with his life ahead of him. He was definitely going places,” his father’s fiance Amanda Wallace said.

She added that he enlisted in the Marines right out of high school and has continued to serve for the past 10 years.

Harding’s brother Jermey Kartman took to social media to post, “The Warthogs MC and the Legion Riders will be bringing my little brother home.”

The Warthogs MC will leave Virginia at 9 a.m. and will accompany Harding’s body to Morgantown, West Virginia at 1 p.m. today. Following their arrival in Morgantown, they will meet with Kartman and the American Legion Riders. From Morgantown, the motorcade will travel to St. Clairsville, where it will make its final stop at Toothman’s Funeral Home.

“We will be coming down (Interstate) 79 to 70 to 470 to the route 9 exit in St. Clairsville to end at Toothman’s Funeral Home in St. Clairsville,” Kartman said.

He added that he hopes Ohio Valley residents will “line route 9 up from the Bell Store to Toothmans like you never have before!”

“Let’s honor my brother like he deserves!” he added.

He suggested that residents wanting to honor Harding start lining up at 2:30 p.m.

According to CBS 6 News out of Richmond, Virginia, 56-year-old Bradford Jordan was traveling east in the westbound lanes of West Hundred Road around 3:30 p.m. and struck Harding head on. Jordan was arrested and charged with DUI and DUI maiming, with additional charges pending, and was being held Monday at the Chesterfield County Jail. The Chesterfield County Police Department is still investigating the incident.

“I’ll miss his smile, his laugh, and him walking through our front door when he comes home on leave,” Wallace said. “The visits to the base. C.J. was an exceptional young man and had everyone’s back! He was hardworking and driven like no other. His heart was pure and full. He loved his family, his friends, the Marine Corps, and his motorcycle club. He’s a genuine guy!”

Kartman said he remembers that his brother was always told that he was too short or too small, but put his heart into becoming a Marine.

“He put his heart into everything he did. Football, basketball, anything he wanted to do he put his all into. That’s what I admired the most about my little brother,” he said. “If you told him he couldn’t, he made sure he could. I remember calling him short and he would snap right back with, ‘I’m not short, I’m fun sized.’ The stories I could tell about the jokes he’s pulled on our mom I could go on for days. He was a jokester. Always will be. We once had my mom convinced that the house was haunted, you could move just the smallest little knick knack in our mom’s house and she would notice it. She’d ask us and we would always act like we had no idea what she was talking about. It went on for years.”

Kartman added that Harding wasn’t just his brother but his best friend.

“He wasn’t just a son, brother, uncle, cousin, grandson, he was a United States Marine. And we as a community, myself as his brother need to stand up and show him our support. That’s why I’m trying to put together the best homecoming we can for our Marine. So please, I know it will be hot and I know it will be miserable, but I’m asking for anyone that can make the time to please if you can’t ride please stand and show our hometown Marine how much support our community has for him. I love my little brother, and I know he would do the same for me,” Kartman said.