thedrifter
03-03-06, 05:36 AM
Posted on Fri, Mar. 03, 2006
Parents remember their fallen Marines
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
Randy Collado says his son loved the Marines and relished the opportunity to help others.
Sharon Foster remembers her son’s easy smile and the way he “danced through life.”
The parents of two Marines from the Midlands will bury their sons within a day of each other. Both Marines were the victims of bombing incidents in Iraq.
Services for Sgt. Jay Collado, 31, will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine Street, with burial in the Florence National Cemetery.
A service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday for 2nd Lt. Almar Fitzgerald, 23, at Lexington Baptist Church. He also will be buried at the Florence cemetery.
The flags atop the State House will be lowered to half staff in the Marines’ memory.
“Jay was a very loving person,” said Randy Collado, a retired Army staff sergeant who was stationed at Fort Jackson. “He put everyone’s safety first.”
Jay Collado joined the Marines after graduating from Richland Northeast High School in 1993. He served one hitch, returned to civilian life, and then rejoined the Marines, Randy Collado said.
“He loved the Marines. He missed the camaraderie.”
A helicopter mechanic at the Miramar Marine Air Corps Station, Jay Collado was attached to the Army’s 4th Infantry Division. Randy Collado said his son could not tell him about what he was doing in Iraq other than “training Iraqis.”
Jay Collado was due to return home in about a month — just in time to celebrate his daughter’s sixth birthday, Randy Collado said.
Jay Collado held a black belt in karate and won about 300 trophies, said a friend, Mike Genova.
“He was very capable of taking care of himself,” the Marine’s father said. “But there isn’t much defense against a bomb.”
‘A PEOPLE PERSON’
Fitzgerald, who was born at Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson, grew up in Lexington and graduated from Lexington High School in 2000.
Fitzgerald made up his mind early in high school that he was going to The Citadel and join the Marines, Foster said. “He did what he wanted to do.”
Fitzgerald died Feb. 21 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he had been on life support after being wounded three days earlier in a bomb blast in Al Anbar province.
Foster, who was flown to Germany, said her son’s right shoulder twitched when she first started talking to him.
She sang him a lullaby that she made up when he was an infant. The muscle spasms became more frequent, but the doctors said they were involuntary.
Further tests determined her son was brain dead. At 10:54 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 21, Fitzgerald was pronounced dead.
The family agreed to donate his organs.
“They said up to nine people will be helped. That gives me some consolation,” Foster said.
It’s also what her son would have wanted, she said.
“He was a people person. He loved life; he’d do anything for anyone.
“He was happy. He danced through life.”
Parents remember their fallen Marines
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
Randy Collado says his son loved the Marines and relished the opportunity to help others.
Sharon Foster remembers her son’s easy smile and the way he “danced through life.”
The parents of two Marines from the Midlands will bury their sons within a day of each other. Both Marines were the victims of bombing incidents in Iraq.
Services for Sgt. Jay Collado, 31, will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine Street, with burial in the Florence National Cemetery.
A service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday for 2nd Lt. Almar Fitzgerald, 23, at Lexington Baptist Church. He also will be buried at the Florence cemetery.
The flags atop the State House will be lowered to half staff in the Marines’ memory.
“Jay was a very loving person,” said Randy Collado, a retired Army staff sergeant who was stationed at Fort Jackson. “He put everyone’s safety first.”
Jay Collado joined the Marines after graduating from Richland Northeast High School in 1993. He served one hitch, returned to civilian life, and then rejoined the Marines, Randy Collado said.
“He loved the Marines. He missed the camaraderie.”
A helicopter mechanic at the Miramar Marine Air Corps Station, Jay Collado was attached to the Army’s 4th Infantry Division. Randy Collado said his son could not tell him about what he was doing in Iraq other than “training Iraqis.”
Jay Collado was due to return home in about a month — just in time to celebrate his daughter’s sixth birthday, Randy Collado said.
Jay Collado held a black belt in karate and won about 300 trophies, said a friend, Mike Genova.
“He was very capable of taking care of himself,” the Marine’s father said. “But there isn’t much defense against a bomb.”
‘A PEOPLE PERSON’
Fitzgerald, who was born at Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson, grew up in Lexington and graduated from Lexington High School in 2000.
Fitzgerald made up his mind early in high school that he was going to The Citadel and join the Marines, Foster said. “He did what he wanted to do.”
Fitzgerald died Feb. 21 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he had been on life support after being wounded three days earlier in a bomb blast in Al Anbar province.
Foster, who was flown to Germany, said her son’s right shoulder twitched when she first started talking to him.
She sang him a lullaby that she made up when he was an infant. The muscle spasms became more frequent, but the doctors said they were involuntary.
Further tests determined her son was brain dead. At 10:54 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 21, Fitzgerald was pronounced dead.
The family agreed to donate his organs.
“They said up to nine people will be helped. That gives me some consolation,” Foster said.
It’s also what her son would have wanted, she said.
“He was a people person. He loved life; he’d do anything for anyone.
“He was happy. He danced through life.”