thedrifter
01-14-07, 08:22 AM
Marine killed in hit, run
Iraq veteran 'always helped everybody'
VIENNA TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Ron Fonger
rfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317
VIENNA TWP. - Just hours after Ricky Salas Jr. sang "Proud to be an American" at a friend's wedding reception, the Marine - still in his dress blue uniform - was struck and killed early Saturday morning by a hit-and-run driver.
Salas, 23, a Montrose High School graduate and veteran of the war in Iraq, was walking on Farrand Road, just east of Linden Road, at about 3:30 a.m. when he was struck by a vehicle police believe was a Chevrolet TrailBlazer.
Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said Salas had lost control of his own vehicle - possibly due to icy roads - and was walking on the shoulder of Farrand Road when he was hit.
An off-duty sheriff's deputy on his way home from work spotted Salas' body at about 3:30 a.m., and police found parts of what they believe is a TrailBlazer's front grille at the scene.
"They just hit him and left," and Patricia Peterson, Salas' mother. If the roles were reversed, "just knowing the way he was, he would never have hit somebody and left," she said.
That wasn't Salas' style.
The decorated Marine, who served as a corporal on the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, had finished his five-year military enlistment in October and was scheduled to start working at a Hollister store in the Genesee Valley shopping center today. An electrician and mechanic in the Marines, Salas took the retail sales job because few companies in the area were hiring, Peterson said, and because he liked the store's clothes.
Returning home also gave him the chance to be with his 5-year-old son, Anthony, and other family.
"His family was everything to him," Peterson said from her Wilson Road home Saturday as relatives and friends, including Salas' son, gathered Saturday.
"He was so excited to be home and be with his boy," Peterson said. "His whole life was his family."
Flint Journal readers may remember Salas from stories about him and dispatches from him appearing in the newspaper in early 2003, part of a feature called Letters Home that let servicemen and women tell their stories as the country prepared for war in Iraq.
In one e-mail, Salas wrote: "Here it's the same as always. Days and nights go by, and no date is important. The day of the week doesn't matter because we don't get weekends off.
"Our job is the most important thing here and, well, we have to do it, but all of us, in the back of our heads, we can't wait to be home and see our loved ones."
Salas spent about nine months overseas before returning to a base in Cherry Point, N.C., continuing to work on gas engines, diesel engines, jet turbine engines, hydraulics, air conditioning and electrical systems.
In e-mails to The Journal, Salas said serving as a Marine was an honor.
"All of the American people are behind me in soul even if they cannot be here in person," he wrote. "I joined to protect all of them."
Stepfather Kevin Peterson said Salas was skilled at his work and continued to work on his own vehicles - three "mud trucks" and the 1989 Ford Mustang he was driving early Saturday.
"He always helped everybody. He was a happy-go-lucky person," Mr. Peterson said. "He was a good kid."
Ellie
Iraq veteran 'always helped everybody'
VIENNA TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, January 14, 2007
By Ron Fonger
rfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317
VIENNA TWP. - Just hours after Ricky Salas Jr. sang "Proud to be an American" at a friend's wedding reception, the Marine - still in his dress blue uniform - was struck and killed early Saturday morning by a hit-and-run driver.
Salas, 23, a Montrose High School graduate and veteran of the war in Iraq, was walking on Farrand Road, just east of Linden Road, at about 3:30 a.m. when he was struck by a vehicle police believe was a Chevrolet TrailBlazer.
Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said Salas had lost control of his own vehicle - possibly due to icy roads - and was walking on the shoulder of Farrand Road when he was hit.
An off-duty sheriff's deputy on his way home from work spotted Salas' body at about 3:30 a.m., and police found parts of what they believe is a TrailBlazer's front grille at the scene.
"They just hit him and left," and Patricia Peterson, Salas' mother. If the roles were reversed, "just knowing the way he was, he would never have hit somebody and left," she said.
That wasn't Salas' style.
The decorated Marine, who served as a corporal on the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, had finished his five-year military enlistment in October and was scheduled to start working at a Hollister store in the Genesee Valley shopping center today. An electrician and mechanic in the Marines, Salas took the retail sales job because few companies in the area were hiring, Peterson said, and because he liked the store's clothes.
Returning home also gave him the chance to be with his 5-year-old son, Anthony, and other family.
"His family was everything to him," Peterson said from her Wilson Road home Saturday as relatives and friends, including Salas' son, gathered Saturday.
"He was so excited to be home and be with his boy," Peterson said. "His whole life was his family."
Flint Journal readers may remember Salas from stories about him and dispatches from him appearing in the newspaper in early 2003, part of a feature called Letters Home that let servicemen and women tell their stories as the country prepared for war in Iraq.
In one e-mail, Salas wrote: "Here it's the same as always. Days and nights go by, and no date is important. The day of the week doesn't matter because we don't get weekends off.
"Our job is the most important thing here and, well, we have to do it, but all of us, in the back of our heads, we can't wait to be home and see our loved ones."
Salas spent about nine months overseas before returning to a base in Cherry Point, N.C., continuing to work on gas engines, diesel engines, jet turbine engines, hydraulics, air conditioning and electrical systems.
In e-mails to The Journal, Salas said serving as a Marine was an honor.
"All of the American people are behind me in soul even if they cannot be here in person," he wrote. "I joined to protect all of them."
Stepfather Kevin Peterson said Salas was skilled at his work and continued to work on his own vehicles - three "mud trucks" and the 1989 Ford Mustang he was driving early Saturday.
"He always helped everybody. He was a happy-go-lucky person," Mr. Peterson said. "He was a good kid."
Ellie