thedrifter
08-28-06, 12:13 AM
Cut from same cloth, 2 Marines die together in Iraq
Sunday August 27, 2006
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) They were both middle class Irish Catholic kids, one from Brooklyn, one from Queens. Both were born with public service in their blood.
John McKenna, the grandson of a U.S. Marine, was a New York State Police trooper when he was called to Iraq.
Michael Glover, nephew of a top-ranking New York fire chief who commanded men at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, had left law school to serve in a tribute to his friends who were killed in the terrorist attacks.
They died together Aug. 16 in Fallujah.
Military officials said Lance Cpl. Michael D. Glover, 28, was hit by sniper fire during a patrol. Capt. John J. McKenna IV, 30, was rushing to his fallen comrade's side when he was also struck down.
The pair were buried separately in New York in ceremonies laden with pageantry and emotion.
Hundreds of mourners including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani filled McKenna's boyhood church in Brooklyn on Friday. His childhood friend, The Rev. Joseph Fonti recalled a tenacious redheaded kid, born on St. Patrick's Day, with pointy ears and a face so Irish that adults called him a leprechaun and rubbed dollars on his forehead for good luck.
Scores of police troopers saluted from highway overpasses as McKenna's body was taken to a cemetery near his Clifton Park home.
On Saturday, hundreds remembered Glover in a church in Belle Harbor, a seaside community whose large population of firefighters and police officers made it especially hard hit by the Sept. 11 attacks.
Strangers lined the street outside the church and wept as the hearse passed between two lines of mourners holding dozens of American flags. Neighborhood parents brought their children to salute the passing casket.
Inside, Glover's cousin, Peter Hayden, choked back tears delivering the eulogy. ``It breaks my heart that I will never see my cousin again,'' he said.
Glover and McKenna also shared a sense of duty.
McKenna had already taken one combat tour in the Marines before his most recent deployment, and stuck with the reserves even though he knew it might mean interrupting his new career as a trooper.
He joined the state police last year and had only recently been assigned to the barracks in Kingston before the order came to head to Iraq.
Glover was still waiting for his first combat assignment when he began earning commendations.
When Hurricane Katrina struck last summer, he grabbed his uniform, loaded food and water into his car and set out for New Orleans with two other Marine friends.
For a week, they helped evacuate thousands of trapped Louisianans by boat. At night, they slept in their car.
When the deployment to Iraq interrupted Glover's studies at Pace University, he didn't mind, his sister, Elizabeth Doherty, recalled in an interview with Newsday this week.
``He said, 'Lizzie, I took an oath, and it's the best oath I've ever taken. I'm very proud of it, and I'm at peace if I come back with parts of me missing. I'm at peace if I don't come back,''' she said.
Ellie
Sunday August 27, 2006
By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) They were both middle class Irish Catholic kids, one from Brooklyn, one from Queens. Both were born with public service in their blood.
John McKenna, the grandson of a U.S. Marine, was a New York State Police trooper when he was called to Iraq.
Michael Glover, nephew of a top-ranking New York fire chief who commanded men at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, had left law school to serve in a tribute to his friends who were killed in the terrorist attacks.
They died together Aug. 16 in Fallujah.
Military officials said Lance Cpl. Michael D. Glover, 28, was hit by sniper fire during a patrol. Capt. John J. McKenna IV, 30, was rushing to his fallen comrade's side when he was also struck down.
The pair were buried separately in New York in ceremonies laden with pageantry and emotion.
Hundreds of mourners including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani filled McKenna's boyhood church in Brooklyn on Friday. His childhood friend, The Rev. Joseph Fonti recalled a tenacious redheaded kid, born on St. Patrick's Day, with pointy ears and a face so Irish that adults called him a leprechaun and rubbed dollars on his forehead for good luck.
Scores of police troopers saluted from highway overpasses as McKenna's body was taken to a cemetery near his Clifton Park home.
On Saturday, hundreds remembered Glover in a church in Belle Harbor, a seaside community whose large population of firefighters and police officers made it especially hard hit by the Sept. 11 attacks.
Strangers lined the street outside the church and wept as the hearse passed between two lines of mourners holding dozens of American flags. Neighborhood parents brought their children to salute the passing casket.
Inside, Glover's cousin, Peter Hayden, choked back tears delivering the eulogy. ``It breaks my heart that I will never see my cousin again,'' he said.
Glover and McKenna also shared a sense of duty.
McKenna had already taken one combat tour in the Marines before his most recent deployment, and stuck with the reserves even though he knew it might mean interrupting his new career as a trooper.
He joined the state police last year and had only recently been assigned to the barracks in Kingston before the order came to head to Iraq.
Glover was still waiting for his first combat assignment when he began earning commendations.
When Hurricane Katrina struck last summer, he grabbed his uniform, loaded food and water into his car and set out for New Orleans with two other Marine friends.
For a week, they helped evacuate thousands of trapped Louisianans by boat. At night, they slept in their car.
When the deployment to Iraq interrupted Glover's studies at Pace University, he didn't mind, his sister, Elizabeth Doherty, recalled in an interview with Newsday this week.
``He said, 'Lizzie, I took an oath, and it's the best oath I've ever taken. I'm very proud of it, and I'm at peace if I come back with parts of me missing. I'm at peace if I don't come back,''' she said.
Ellie