thedrifter
12-05-05, 06:13 AM
Families nationwide mourn Marines killed in Fallujah
By TONY PERRY and SARA LIN
Los Angeles Times
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -- A week ago, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Martinez called his mother from Iraq with exciting news.
"He said, 'Mom, go to Zales and buy a carat-and-a-half diamond -- I'm coming home,' " Kelly Hunt said.
Martinez, 20, planned to propose to his longtime girlfriend as soon as he got home to Splendora, in East Texas, maybe as early as January.
Now Hunt is planning a funeral, not a wedding.
Martinez and nine others from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment were killed Thursday outside Fallujah by the blast of a bomb cobbled together from four artillery shells. It was the largest one-day loss of the Iraq war for Marine units from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Twentynine Palms. The units augmented the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Initial reports said the dead Marines were from there.
The 2nd Battalion has been in Iraq since July, its third deployment to the war zone. The bombing pushed to 75 the death toll from the sprawling Twentynine Palms base in the Mojave Desert.
"These men did not give their lives in vain," Col. William Crowe, commanding officer of the 7th Marine Regiment, said Saturday of the 10. "We will not forget them."
The battalion lost three of its members earlier in the war, and families' nerves are frayed. But a recent newsletter from the command had suggested that the worst was over.
"Things are going very well," the newsletter said. "While we have had casualties, our spirits are high and we continue every day to look for ways to win."
Some families had dared to plan for a celebratory return.
Shirley Watson of Union City, Mich., was going to greet son Lance Cpl. Craig Watson, 21, as soon as he stepped off the bus in Twentynine Palms.
"He told me I'd better have a beer in my hand for him," she said. "He was so ready to come home; he was so close."
In Romeoville, Ill., the family of Lance Cpl. Adam Kaiser, 19, had planned to keep the Christmas decorations up until he came home, they hoped in mid-January. Then came the midnight visit from the casualty team.
"Soon as you see their faces, you can tell what happened," Kaiser's father, Wade, said. "The worst part is later: You sit there in disbelief. You can't sleep, you can't eat, you keep thinking maybe it's a mistake.
"It's about as horrible as you can imagine."
Timothy Holmason of Scappose, Ore., lost his son, Lance Cpl. John Holmason, 20.
"It was about 1 a.m., and I heard the knock," he said. "I looked out from the second floor, and I knew immediately when I saw the Marines there."
On Saturday, some parents pondered their sons' fateful decision to enlist in the branch of military most likely to send them into a combat zone.
"When he talked about the military, I suggested the Air Force, but he was Marine Corps all the way," Timothy Holmason said.
In Twentynine Palms, some business owners and patrons fought tears as they took in the news.
"I hope it was no one I knew," Bessy Sanford said as she clipped one Marine's hair at Cuts Un'tl. "They're our Marines. ... It just hurts me that they are dying."
Ellie
By TONY PERRY and SARA LIN
Los Angeles Times
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -- A week ago, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Martinez called his mother from Iraq with exciting news.
"He said, 'Mom, go to Zales and buy a carat-and-a-half diamond -- I'm coming home,' " Kelly Hunt said.
Martinez, 20, planned to propose to his longtime girlfriend as soon as he got home to Splendora, in East Texas, maybe as early as January.
Now Hunt is planning a funeral, not a wedding.
Martinez and nine others from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment were killed Thursday outside Fallujah by the blast of a bomb cobbled together from four artillery shells. It was the largest one-day loss of the Iraq war for Marine units from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Twentynine Palms. The units augmented the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Initial reports said the dead Marines were from there.
The 2nd Battalion has been in Iraq since July, its third deployment to the war zone. The bombing pushed to 75 the death toll from the sprawling Twentynine Palms base in the Mojave Desert.
"These men did not give their lives in vain," Col. William Crowe, commanding officer of the 7th Marine Regiment, said Saturday of the 10. "We will not forget them."
The battalion lost three of its members earlier in the war, and families' nerves are frayed. But a recent newsletter from the command had suggested that the worst was over.
"Things are going very well," the newsletter said. "While we have had casualties, our spirits are high and we continue every day to look for ways to win."
Some families had dared to plan for a celebratory return.
Shirley Watson of Union City, Mich., was going to greet son Lance Cpl. Craig Watson, 21, as soon as he stepped off the bus in Twentynine Palms.
"He told me I'd better have a beer in my hand for him," she said. "He was so ready to come home; he was so close."
In Romeoville, Ill., the family of Lance Cpl. Adam Kaiser, 19, had planned to keep the Christmas decorations up until he came home, they hoped in mid-January. Then came the midnight visit from the casualty team.
"Soon as you see their faces, you can tell what happened," Kaiser's father, Wade, said. "The worst part is later: You sit there in disbelief. You can't sleep, you can't eat, you keep thinking maybe it's a mistake.
"It's about as horrible as you can imagine."
Timothy Holmason of Scappose, Ore., lost his son, Lance Cpl. John Holmason, 20.
"It was about 1 a.m., and I heard the knock," he said. "I looked out from the second floor, and I knew immediately when I saw the Marines there."
On Saturday, some parents pondered their sons' fateful decision to enlist in the branch of military most likely to send them into a combat zone.
"When he talked about the military, I suggested the Air Force, but he was Marine Corps all the way," Timothy Holmason said.
In Twentynine Palms, some business owners and patrons fought tears as they took in the news.
"I hope it was no one I knew," Bessy Sanford said as she clipped one Marine's hair at Cuts Un'tl. "They're our Marines. ... It just hurts me that they are dying."
Ellie