PFC Joey Payton

A Lehigh Acres Marine is dead after returning from overseas to California where he was to be discharged last week. He died at what the military calls a “cool off period” in California.

PFC Charles Joseph “Joey” Payton, 22, will be honored at a funeral service at 7 p.m. Friday at Lee Memorial Park Funeral Home & Cemetery on SR82. The Patriot Guard Riders will “Stand in Silent Respect” at the service.

PFC Payton had been a member of the JROTC and graduated from Riverdale High School in 2007. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps with a reporting date of January 2008.

According to a spokesman with the Patriot Guard, his duty assignments took him all over the world to Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Hawaii.

His most recent assignment was with the 9th Engineering Service Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistical Group, 31st Marine Expedition Unit.

The spokesman with the Patriot Guard said he had only been home twice in his four years of service with the first time for his father’s funeral while he was in boot camp in 2008 and the second time was to give his sister away in marriage in September of 2010.

The Department of Defense had not reported his death as of late this week. No details of his death have been made available, although friends of the family say an autopsy was performed.

He had been awarded the Expert Marksmanship National Defense Medal, GWOT Service Medal and Sea Service Ribbon with two Bronze Stars.

He was expected to be discharged from the Marines on Sept. 13. He died on Sept. 10.

The head of the JROTC at Riverdale High School, where Payton graduated, declined to comment about his time at Riverdale. However, cadets who knew him plan to attend the funeral. A note announcing his death was posted on a wall at the school, a friend of the family said.

According to the spokesperson from the Patriot Guard, Payton loved music, sports and was always a jokester as well as the class clown, laughing, vibrant and easy-going.

He had a My Space.com page on the Internet and in it he joked with his friends and had put pictures online of himself playing the guitar. There were photos he had taken during his tour of duty with the Marines.

He wrote: “Live everyday like it’s your last.” He said he was in Japan.

In a humorous note on My Space.com, Payton said he was “now chillin in Okinawa, Japan I’m in the Marine Corp., I’m a bulk fuel specialist. I’m good at buffing floors I love my job. I’ve done a lot of cool stuff, and been to a lot of awesome places. I am really missing being a civilian though.

“I’m really into music, all types. Music is my life. I play the drums, being playing for about seven or eight years now. I looove (sic) going to concerts probably my favorite thing to do … I love to go out. I’m really out doing something – I’m always having a good time.”

A friend of the family said his organs were donated to other people so that they may live.

According to the Patriot Guard, after discharge from the Marines, he planned on coming home to be with his mother and younger brother, then later visiting some buddies and he wanted to backpack in Australia.

Payton is survived by his mother, Susan “Sue” Payton, and 7-year-old brother, Jack, both of Lehigh Acres. There is also a sister, Amber, and her husband, Nick Rivera, of Kentucky as well as a step-brother, Sean Kiermaier of Erie, Pa.

After the funeral, a spokeswoman with Lee Memorial Park Funeral Home & Cemetery said cremation will take place.

There will be no interment as Payton had requested his ashes be scattered “all over the world.” Full military honors will be given at the service.

Those visiting the service are asked by the Patriot Riders to bring a 3-foot by 5 foot American flag to “Stand in Honor” of Payton’s military service.