BINGHAM – Hundreds of people lined the main street as a hearse carried a soldier killed in Iraq to his hometown for memorial services Tuesday.

Army Pfc. Jason Dore, 25, died on July 8 of injuries from a roadside bomb, becoming the third soldier from Maine to die in a month in Iraq. He was eight months into his first tour of duty there when he was injured while on patrol in a Humvee.

After his coffin arrived at the Augusta State Airport on Sunday, a mile-long column of motorcycles and cars escorted the hearse along the 65 miles to his hometown of Bingham, where storefront windows were decorated with red, white and blue paper cutouts of Dore’s name.

In this town of about 1,000 people, hundreds of residents lined the street, the silence broken only by falling rain and people crying on the sidewalks.

Bill MacDonald, owner of Valley View Market general store, watched Sunday’s procession with sadness as it made its way past his store.

“I’ve had this store 18 years. I watched him grow up,” MacDonald said. “He was just an ordinary kid. He grew up right here, just like we all did.”

Dore joined the Army in 2005 after attending Upper Kennebec Valley High School in Bingham and graduating from the Job Corps in Bangor.

MacDonald said Dore’s death hit the town with an impact that has been unmatched since another local resident, Kenneth Belanger, died 40 years ago in Vietnam.

Gov. John Baldacci has ordered U.S. and Maine flags to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset Tuesday, the day of his funeral. Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. at Quimby Elementary School in Bingham.

Dore, who was a member of the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, is survived by his mother, Gail; his 15-year-old brother, Logan; his father, Jody; and his fiancee, Sophie Belanger.