The mother of a Perryville Marine says he lives on in the acts of kindness his friends and family do in his name.
Missouri House members last month honored Lance Corporal Trevor Richardet, who died in September at the age of 19, due to injuries he sustained in a motorcycle accident while stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Richardet decided at 17 to join the Marines. He went to boot camp in San Diego, California, and trained at Fort Leonard Wood before being stationed at Camp Lejeune. He was able to wear his dress blues to walk across the stage for his high school graduation.
“He was my right hand for a long time,” said Richardet’s mom, Amy Hager. “Anything you asked of him, he was always willing to help. He was always willing to lend a helping hand.”
Representative Rick Francis (R-Perryville) said Richardet was a “great young man,” who, “enjoyed life but also was respectful. It seemed like he had instilled in him the discipline even before he went into the military.”
When Richardet was brought home for his funeral, he was escorted from St. Louis by Patriot Guard riders and 50 to 100 Perryville residents. Then as his body arrived in Perryville, hundreds of local residents turned out along the streets to “light his way” home.
“Starting at the Arnold overpass … there were fire trucks and people on every single overpass with lights on,” said Hager. “Then once we got to the Perryville exit and we drove through town to the funeral home, the streets were lined with people holding flashlights and candles … all the way from the time we got off the interstate to the time we got to the funeral home.”
27 of Richardet’s fellow Marines took a bus from North Carolina all the way to Perryville to be present for his funeral, and six of them served as pallbearers. Hager has kept in touch with some of those Marines as part of her effort to keep her son’s memory alive.
“I don’t want his story to end just because he’s not here,” said Hager. “We’ve stayed in contact with the Marines that came here, and they’re deployed right now, and my family and friends have got together three different times and sent them care packages … like 30 care packages going out each time.”
Another ongoing effort to remember Richardet will be a stipend that will go to seniors graduating from Perryville High School and going into the military.
That stipend has already been given to one graduate, who Hager learned was a friend of Richardet’s and who said Richardet inspired him to join the military.
He will also be honored at a Veterans memorial in Perryville and by a memorial at the Perryville High School.
Hager said the Marines who came to Perryville shared stories about how Richardet often helped them with car repairs to save them the cost of a trip to a mechanic, or how he would go out of his way to help anyone who needed it.
On May 8, Hager and Richardet’s father, Chad Richardet, stepfather, Mark Hager, and other members of the family, were presented with a resolution from the House and a pair of United States flags that flew over the Missouri Capitol on Veterans Day, 2018.
“His selfless service to our nation gave him fulfillment and made his family and friends extremely proud,” Francis said of Richardet that day. “Our nation is the greatest in the world because of dedicated individuals like Trevor Richardet. Without their willingness to sacrifice and serve we would not be the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
In addition to his parents, Richardet is survived by five brothers and his grandparents.