BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    






           SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE       BILL NO: SCR 5
          SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN               AUTHOR:  Runner
                                                         VERSION: 12/02/08
          Analysis by:  Jennifer Gress                   FISCAL:  yes
          Hearing date:  March 31, 2009







          SUBJECT:

          The Marine Corporal Christopher D. Leon Memorial Highway

          DESCRIPTION:

          This resolution designates a segment of State Highway Route 14  
          in the City of Lancaster as the "Marine Corporal Christopher D.  
          Leon Memorial Highway."

          ANALYSIS:

           This resolution  :  

           Designates the segment of State Highway Route 14 between  
            Avenue M and Avenue L in the City of Lancaster as the "Marine  
            Corporal Christopher D. Leon Memorial Highway."

           Requests the California Department of Transportation  
            (Caltrans) to determine the cost of erecting appropriate  
            signs, consistent with the signing requirements for the state  
            highway system, and, upon receiving donations from nonstate  
            sources sufficient to cover that cost, to erect those signs.
          
          COMMENTS:

           Background  .  Marine Corporal Christopher D. Leon was born on  
          November 5, 1985 in Thousand Oaks, California.  Shortly upon  
          graduating from Lancaster High School in 2004, he left for boot  
          camp in the Marine Corps in San Diego.  

          Marine Corporal Leon had always wanted to be a Marine and loved  
          the camaraderie and high sense of purpose that is part of being  
          in the Marine Corps.  He was described by fellow members of the  




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          Marine Corps as having a heart of a lion.  This characteristic  
          was displayed on many occasions, including when he broke his  
          foot during a boot camp exercise called "the crucible" but  
          nonetheless still managed to courageously finish 10 miles of  
          hiking and even more miles of running on that broken foot.

          Marine Corporal Christopher D. Leon obtained his corporal's  
          stripes within two years of service and was assigned to the 5th  
          Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO), III Marine  
          Expeditionary Force, in Okinawa, Japan.  He excelled in ANGLICO  
          training and in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.  As a  
          liaison company member, Marine Corporal Leon was trained to  
          quickly pinpoint the source of enemy fire from ground troops,  
          helicopters, or attack plans and then to direct counter-fire.  

          On June 20, 2006, at 20 years of age, Marine Corporal  
          Christopher D. Leon died from injuries suffered in combat in the  
          western province of Al Anbar, Iraq.  Surviving Marine Corporal  
          Leon are his parents, James and Kathi Leon, grandparents, Lucien  
          and Rita Hemond, aunts and uncles, LoriAnn and Robert Lumley and  
          Paul and Margo Hemond, cousins, Anna Lumley and Andrew Hemond,  
          birth mom, Nikki Ruhl, Nikki's mother, Sue Ruhl, and Nikki's  
          sister, Tracy Rossi and family.

          He was fiercely proud of the hazardous duty he performed in  
          combat in defense of the United States of America.  At a  
          memorial service for Marine Corporal Leon in Ramadi, Iraq,  
          Marine Captain Adam Blanton praised him as "everything I could  
          have asked for in a Marine."  By designating a segment of State  
          Highway Route 14 in his name, this resolution honors the  
          sacrifices this young man made for his country.
          

           POSITIONS:  (Communicated to the Committee before noon on  
                     Wednesday,                              
                      March 25, 2009)

               SUPPORT:  American Federation of State, County and  
          Municipal Employees
          
               OPPOSED:  None received.