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06-18-06, 01:53 PM
June 16, 2006
KIA Marine is 2,500th lost in Iraq
By John Hoellwarth
Times staff writer
The 2,500th member of the U.S. armed forces killed since the war in Iraq began is a Marine from California, the Defense Department announced today.
Cpl. Michael Estrella, of Hemet, CA was killed June 14 during combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq, the Defense Department said.
2nd Lt. Binford Strickland, spokesman for the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where Estrella’s unit is based, said that Estrella is the 2,500th military member killed since the invasion of Iraq. Casualty officials at Marines Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C., confirmed Strickland’s statement.
A field radio operator by military specialty, Estrella was assigned to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, at the time of his death. His unit has been in Iraq since March.
Estrella was on his second combat deployment when he was killed. He was with 3/3 when it deployed to Afghanistan in November 2005 and returned to Hawaii in June 2005, Strickland said.
The U.S. suffered its 2,000th casualty in late October, when statistical data showed that more than half of the fallen were under age 25.
Estrella, at 20, had already earned the Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Medal, Afghanistan and Iraq Campaign Medals, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal at the time of his death.
Stickland said a recommendation to award him the Purple Heart has also been submitted, but it has not yet made it through the administrative process of being approved.
Source: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1875206.php
PGR notified
KIA Marine is 2,500th lost in Iraq
By John Hoellwarth
Times staff writer
The 2,500th member of the U.S. armed forces killed since the war in Iraq began is a Marine from California, the Defense Department announced today.
Cpl. Michael Estrella, of Hemet, CA was killed June 14 during combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq, the Defense Department said.
2nd Lt. Binford Strickland, spokesman for the Marine Corps Base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, where Estrella’s unit is based, said that Estrella is the 2,500th military member killed since the invasion of Iraq. Casualty officials at Marines Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C., confirmed Strickland’s statement.
A field radio operator by military specialty, Estrella was assigned to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, at the time of his death. His unit has been in Iraq since March.
Estrella was on his second combat deployment when he was killed. He was with 3/3 when it deployed to Afghanistan in November 2005 and returned to Hawaii in June 2005, Strickland said.
The U.S. suffered its 2,000th casualty in late October, when statistical data showed that more than half of the fallen were under age 25.
Estrella, at 20, had already earned the Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Medal, Afghanistan and Iraq Campaign Medals, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal at the time of his death.
Stickland said a recommendation to award him the Purple Heart has also been submitted, but it has not yet made it through the administrative process of being approved.
Source: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1875206.php
PGR notified