Hanover Marine killed in Iraq

[thedrifter]

Hanover Marine killed in Iraq

23-year-old remembered as hard worker, team player

BY NAVID IQBAL
DAILY RECORD

HANOVER -- Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Benedict Cosgrove III of Cedar Knolls, a 2001 graduate of Whippany Park High School, was killed in action in Iraq on Sunday.

Details of how and where in the country Cosgrove died were unclear Monday night.

The Department of Defense issues press releases listing military casualties on its Web site 24 hours after the last official next of kin of the deceased soldier has been notified, according to Lt. Commander Joe Carpenter, a department spokesman.

However, on Monday word quickly spread throughout Hanover and to Cosgrove's former high school through people close to family members and the local Marine office at Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township.

Reached at home Monday afternoon, Cosgrove's mother, Charlene Bowie, referred all phone calls to 1st Sgt. William Meisinger at the Picatinny Arsenal office.

Art Bowie, Charlene's husband, declined to comment when reached by phone at his business in Livingston.

Meisinger did not return phone calls and several messages left for him throughout the day.

The Marine, 23, was a beloved alumnus, according to his high school Principal John Manning.

The inscription beneath Cosgrove's 2001 senior yearbook photo reads, "Pride and Commitment: Whippany Park High School Football," Manning said, "and his pride in the football team was important to him."

In addition to football, where he wore No. 68, he also was a member of the school's track and lacrosse teams.

"Chris was one of the hardest workers and, typical of his Marine Corps attitude, he always placed the team above everything else," Manning said. "He was a very team-oriented young man and very fond of Whippany Park High School. He visited us often."

The last time Cosgrove visited his former teachers at the high school was last spring, just before he shipped out for Iraq.

Assistant Wildcats football coach Brent Kaiser chatted with Cosgrove for 20 minutes in a lobby at the high school that spring before the marine was sent to Iraq.

"He was good to have around," Kaiser said. "He would do anything for the team."

Kaiser, a 13-year-veteran football coach, said Cosgrove was "overly proud" about joining the Marines.

Cosgrove enlisted in the Corps just after leaving Monmouth University in 2005.

Determined to serve

"He could've very easily found a job over here and settled down," Kaiser said. "He had this excitement for what he was doing in that last conversation we had, it stood out, just how really strong-willed he was. He knew what he wanted to do. Not too many people would just get up and do what he did, to go fight for your country. It was a big decision. I have a lot of respect for him for that. "

Cosgrove intelligently discussed the consequences of what he was setting out to do and said that joining the military would be beneficial for him later, Kaiser said.

Whippany Park High School plans to observe a moment of silence this morning in Cosgrove's memory, according to Manning. Formal funeral arrangements were not complete on Monday.

Several cars were parked outside Cosgrove's home in the Trail Woods development in Hanover on Monday. Two flags -- the U.S. flag and a red Marine flag -- hung low from poles. Several other homes in Trail Woods had smaller American flags at their curbs.

Cosgrove's grandfather from his mother's side, Charles Angelo Turrisi Sr., of Roxbury, who died in 2004, served as a pilot during World War II. His plane was shot down over Yugoslavia and he was held prisoner until the war ended, according to Turrisi's obituary.

A tragic first

Cosgrove is believed to be the first serviceman from Hanover to have died in Iraq. Five other servicemen from Morris County have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war.

Lance Cpl. Robert J. Slattery was the only other Marine from Hanover who was killed in action, in Vietnam, since that war, according to Pete Gallo, commandant of the Whippany-based Lance Corporal Robert J. Slattery Detachment of the U.S. Marine Corps League, where Cosgrove was scheduled to become the junior vice-commandant on Wednesday.

The military reported three Marines died in the al Anbar Province in Iraq on Sunday, but did not release names, pending family notification. Carpenter on Monday said it would be speculation to connect that incident to Cosgrove.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

`Pack All Of His Letters'

Marine From New Jersey Killed In Iraq Blast; Another From Connecticut Wounded

By TOM BROWN
And DAVID FUNKHOUSER Courant Staff Writers

October 3 2006

A Marine from New Jersey serving with the Plainville-based Charlie Company died Sunday when a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint in northeast Fallujah, Iraq. A second Marine, from Connecticut, was wounded in the blast.

Lance Cpl. Christopher B. Cosgrove III, 23, of Cedar Knolls, N.J., died at a checkpoint where Marines from the 1st Battalion, 25th Regiment, were searching cars as they entered the city, which has been the site of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Lance Cpl. Jason E. Mikolajcik of Burlington was seriously injured in the same explosion, which killed two Iraqi Army soldiers and critically injured two more. Mikolajcik, 20, a 2005 graduate of Lewis Mills High School, was flown to Germany for treatment.

Charlie Company is about two weeks from wrapping up a seven-month deployment in Fallujah.

Two other Marines in the unit were seriously wounded by sniper fire on Saturday as they were finishing a foot patrol. Both were evacuated to Germany for treatment.

Sgt. Terry Rathbun Jr., 35, of East Lyme, was shot through the jaw and neck; he is in critical but stable condition, his father said Monday evening.

The sniper also hit Capt. Harry Thompson of Las Vegas. Thompson suffered a collapsed lung and is now in stable condition, according to Marines in Fallujah.

Rathbun's father, also named Terry, said he got a call about his son Saturday night. "I cried. I'm a father, I cried," the elder Rathbun said. "I feel very bad about it. It's something he wanted to do, and I respect that. My son is a damn good Marine."

In Fallujah, Marines with Charlie Company gathered around Cosgrove's bunk on Sunday to collect his effects and remember a comrade known for an ironic sense of humor and boyish grin.

"He was everyone's friend," said Sgt. Leo Robillard of Pittsfield, Mass. "He really embraced the Iraqis. He would learn their language and had regulars who frequently came through the [checkpoint] who he got to know."

Sgt. Julio Feliciano of Springfield remembered Cosgrove as a person who would do anything for anyone. "He was always there for you," he said.

Cosgrove and Mikolajcik had volunteered to work the shift for others in the unit Sunday.

His fellow Marines said Cosgrove had been planning his wedding and was designing the invitations with his fiancee. He had wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement.

The Marines said a man and a woman were in the car that exploded. The blast occurred as the vehicle was pulling into an inspection bay to be searched.

John Mikolajcik said Monday evening he had spoken by phone to his son, who told him what happened. He said Cosgrove and his son, who had been leading the inspection squad, had approached the car to help an Iraqi with the inspection when Mikolajcik noticed that the Iraqi man in the car was cringing. Then the car exploded.

The blast knocked Mikolajcik to the ground and set him afire. He got up and saw Cosgrove was also on fire. He rescued two Iraqi police officers from the vehicle and tried to save Cosgrove, but other Marines pulled him back from the burning wreckage.

Mikolajcik, who joined the Marines in 2005, suffered burns and shrapnel wounds and is scheduled to be flown to a burn center in Texas today, his father said. Mikolajcik told his father he doesn't know why he's alive.

As Robillard and other Marines carefully packed the last of Cosgrove's personal belongings into sea bags at the base in Fallujah, Staff Sgt. Keith Hanna, a tough older Marine, wiped a tear from his eye and looked over at the bunk. "Make sure you pack all of his letters from home," he said.

Terry Rathbun said his son is to be flown today or Wednesday to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where his family will gather.

"We are holding on till we find out what is going on," Rathbun said, adding that it was difficult conveying the sobering news to his family.

"It was hard. It was very hard. The only thing that made it easier was that he is alive," Rathbun said.

"It's been a bad couple of days for Charlie Company," said company commander Maj. Vaughn Ward, speaking to Marines in Fallujah.

Cosgrove's death comes on top of three other recent deaths in the unit: Cpl. Jordan C. Pierson, 21, of Milford, was killed Aug. 25; Lance Cpl. Philip A. Johnson, 19, of Enfield, died Sept. 2; and Pfc. Nicholas A. Madaras, 19, of Wilton, was killed Sept. 3.

Ellie