Fort Carson Staff Sgt. Benjamin Pennington’s remains will return home to Kentucky Friday.

Community members are planning a procession Friday afternoon to honor his homecoming from Fort Knox to downtown Elizabethtown, a news release said. His funeral is planned for Saturday.

Across Colorado, flags will fly at half-staff from sunrise on Friday to Saturday to honor the soldier who served with the 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade, the governor ordered Thursday.

Pennington died March 8 following an attack on March 1 at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia during Operation Epic Fury. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it had hit the air base with missiles and drones, and later satellite imagery showed a mile-long smoke plume rising from the site, The New York Times reported.

In an obituary, Pennington’s family remembered his lifelong love of the military and dream of serving. He enlisted at 18.

“His childhood room was decorated with Army prints and had military planes hanging from the ceiling,” the obituary said.

As a teenager, he dedicated most of his time to Boy Scouts, where he met his best friends and earned the distinction of Eagle Scout. He was also a high school athlete and competed on the cross country and track and field teams.

While serving in the Army, he was assigned to Fort Polk and Korea before coming to Fort Carson. While living in Colorado, he enjoyed hiking and skiing, the obituary said.

The 26-year-old also loved bourbon and baseball, and had planned to see a game in every Major League Baseball stadium.