Funeral today for soldier from Hernando killed in Afghanistan

U.S. Army Spc. Justin Coleman had been assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in Fort Drum, N.Y.

Friends and family members will remember a soldier from Hernando County who was killed in Afghanistan last month.

U.S. Army Spc. Justin Coleman of Hernando Beach was 21. He had joined the military after graduating high school and had deployed to Afghanistan in January.

A funeral for Coleman will be at 10 a.m. today at Downing Funeral Home, 1214 Wendy Court, off U.S. 19, a mile north of County Line Road in Spring Hill.

A procession to Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell will travel north on U.S. 19 to State Road 50 to Interstate 75. He will be buried with full military honors. A reception will follow at the VFW in Hernando Beach.

Coleman "died July 24 in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires," according to the Defense Department Web site.

He had been assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in Fort Drum, N.Y.

Coleman is survived by his wife, Nicole. She was celebrating her birthday with a friend when she received news of her husband's death.

According to the Defense Department, 748 military men and women have died while fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom. Forty-three were from Florida.