PDA

View Full Version : Bx. Marine 1st ’09 Afghan casualty



thedrifter
01-20-09, 11:15 AM
Bx. Marine 1st ’09 Afghan casualty
Happy memories greet Alberto’s mourners

by DANIEL BEEKMAN

On Thursday, January 8, Alberto Francesconi’s family spoke softly, shed tears and embraced. No rifle salute. No funeral dress. Only happy memories and hastily printed “Alberto” t-shirts.

Francesconi, a 21-year old Marine from Bedford Park, died on New Year’s Day in Afghanistan. He was the first U.S. soldier to fall in Afghanistan this year. The Marine Corps notified Francesconi’s family just before midnight on New Years Eve here.

“He had a big heart,” said Michael Vega, an older brother. “He was very brave. What a terrible tragedy.”

More than 400 people attended Francesconi’s wake. Cardinal Edward Egan presided over the funeral, at Our Lady of Mercy on Marion Avenue. Governor David Paterson praised Francesconi during his State of the State address January 7, and Albany’s flags flew at half-mast Friday, January 9.

Francesconi’s mother, Minerva Negron, wailed when Marines lowered her son into St. Raymond’s cemetery, where Negron’s mother is also buried.

Born and bred on Park Avenue at 187th Street, Francesconi attended P.S. 85 and graduated from Aviation High School in Queens. A licensed aircraft mechanic and personal banker at the age of 18, Francesconi led by example.

“I was so proud of him,” said Pedro Sifonte, Francesconi’s uncle and godfather. “He came from a rough neighborhood.”

Francesconi took his cues from Robert Rivera, another older brother.

“I went to Aviation High School, so he went to Aviation High School,” Rivera said. “I joined the Navy, so he joined the Marines. He always used to tell me, ‘Whatever you can do, I can do better.’”

Francesconi served in Iraq from July 2007 to January 2008. A scout sniper, he was nervous before heading to Afghanistan last November. Rivera considered shipping out with his younger brother.

“We did everything together,” said Rivera. “Martial arts. Parties. The beach. The gym. When he was in streets, I was there with him. I protected him.”

In 2006, Francesconi married his teenage sweetheart, Cynthia. A family man, he savored trips to Orchard Beach.

“When I think of Albert, I think of the happiest moments of my life,” Cynthia Francesconi said. “You couldn’t be with him and not have a smile on your face.”

An aspiring pilot, Francesconi joined the Marines to earn money and polish his resume, relatives said. According to Sifonte, Francesconi planned to enroll at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida following his tour of Afghanistan.

“He never got that chance,” Sifonte said.

Francesconi called his wife from Afghanistan on December 31 to say goodbye. He was about to embark on a five-day mission. Stationed in one of the country’s most volatile regions, Francesconi worked to clear houses and root out insurgents.

The next day, he stepped on a pressure-activated landmine. Two nearby Marines were hurt but survived. Francesconi died from injuries an hour later.

“One of the Marines injured with him just flew back to Afghanistan,” Sifonte said. “Our family doesn’t support the war, but we support the troops. There are plenty of Bronx kids out there and we feel for them.”

Francesconi’s legacy lives on. When he returned from Iraq, Francesconi convinced a handful of friends to join the Marines.

“Here were these guys from the hood – out of work, out of school,” Rivera said. “Albert told them, ‘Come with me, see the world. There’s more to life than the block. There’s more to life than the Bronx.’ And he convinced them. I was impressed. Here were these guys selling drugs. Albert turned them around.”

One young man, a product of foster homes and the city’s shelter system, now commands a C-53 helicopter.

But Francesconi’s family is shaken. Vega was there when the bad news arrived. It was after 11 p.m. on New Years Eve.

“My mother came into the room and collapsed,” Vega said. “It was like the whole world crumbled. I had a phone in each hand. I called hundreds of people. I kept repeating the same words over and over.”

Cynthia Francesconi missed her husband this winter. Afghanistan, Francesconi told her, was three times worse than Iraq. Since the war began in 2001, 631 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan, 155 last year.

Phil Gonzalez, a former Marine who taught Francesconi in fourth and fifth grade, paid his respects January 8, at the quiet family gathering.

“It was my first year teaching, and Albert misbehaved,” Gonzalez said. “Parent teacher conferences were coming up. One night, I heard a knock on my window. It was Albert. He gave me a teddy bear and said, ‘Don’t tell my mother.’ He was a great kid.”

Ellie

thedrifter
01-27-09, 07:09 AM
Afghanistan bomb blast kills Brooklyn Marine and aspiring actor, 25

BY KERRY BURKE and LEO STANDORA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Tuesday, January 27th 2009, 4:00 AM

Just about everyone who knew aspiring actor Julian (Jules) Brennan thought he'd be a star someday.

The handsome 25-year-old Brooklyn man with a killer smile could sing, dance, crack you up with a joke or just endear himself to you with his sometimes goofy personality, say friends.

He wanted a career on the stage or in movies, but not before he followed a family tradition of serving his country, so he joined the Marines.

A roadside bomb blast killed Lance Cpl. Brennan Saturday during a combat mission in Afghanistan's Farah Province, a growing hotbed of Taliban activity, officials said.

He became the second New Yorker to fall in Afghanistan this year while serving with the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Marine Lance Cpl. Alberto Francesconi, 21, lost his life to a land mine in Afghanistan on New Year's Day.

Brennan's brother, James, and father, Billy, a singer who tours the nation entertaining kids with environment-themed tunes, were too distraught to talk.

But family friend Charles Marahan, 75, described Julian as a "real swell kid, a very good-looking boy who was the darling of the girls. Jules was made for the stage and the movies. You either have it or you don't, and he had it."

Brennan graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in 2005 with an associate's degree in drama, then took a job as a carpenter with the Martha Stewart show.

"He was in a couple of Off-Broadway shows and it looked like that was what he was going to do," said Marahan, "but then he got the bug to join the Marines."

"His grandfather fought in the Pacific theater in WWII, and Jules wanted to emulate him," he explained. "The family had a military tradition, and he wanted to live up to it.

"We're all shook up about this because we expected to see him come back," Marahan said dolefully. "The Marines, they offered him a commission because he was a college graduate, but he turned it down. All he wanted to do was one tour then return to acting."

Brennan also was a pretty fair athlete who finished the 2007 New York City Triathlon in 2:44:21.

On his MySpace page, he described himself "as a guy who will go out of his way to make someone laugh, write a great song, find a reason to dance, and watch the sun rise every chance he gets."

kburke@nydailynews.com

Ellie

Accord
01-29-09, 05:08 PM
Send me the **** back.