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fontman
08-12-06, 06:31 AM
Combat correspondent killed in Virginia crash
By John Hoellwarth
Marine Corps Staff writer

A Marine corporal who wrote an award-winning story about a sergeant who sacrificed himself on an enemy grenade during the 2004 battle for Fallujah, Iraq, was killed Aug. 7 when his 2000 Ford Mustang struck a dump truck on Interstate 95, just south of Springfield, Va.

Cpl. Travis J. Kaemmerer, of Taunton, Mass., was assigned to the public affairs office at Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va., at the time of his death. He was 23.

"He had gone to war and came back safe," his mother, Dianne Kaemmerer, told the Boston Herald. "He had just about finished his service and had his whole life ahead of him."

According to Staff Sgt. Christina Delai, a Marine spokeswoman, the History Channel is producing a documentary about the firefight Kaemmerer detailed in his first-hand account of Sgt. Rafael Peralta's ultimate sacrifice. Peralta is widely rumored to be nominated for the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of Kaemmerer and others by rolling onto a live enemy grenade as he lay dying of gunshot wounds.

Delai said the History Channel intended to interview Kaemmerer as a primary source for the documentary. His story, "A Hero's Sacrifice," was published on the Marine Corps' Web site Dec. 2, 2004, and earned Kaemmerer the Defense Department's Thomas Jefferson Award for combat reporting.

fontman
08-12-06, 06:32 AM
A hero's sacrifice <br />
By Lance Cpl. T.J. Kaemmerer <br />
U.S. Marine Corps <br />
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Editor's note: The story originally appeared on the Marine Corps' Web site on Dec. 2, 2004. The writer was killed in a vehicle...