Posted on 04/06/2005 9:13:44 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Tibetan-American Marine Killed in Iraq
2005.04.05
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| Cpl. Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim, a 19-year-old immigrant has become the first Tibetan-American killed in combat in Iraq. Photo: RFA |
Cpl. Tenzin Choeku Dengkhim died as a result of “hostile action” April 2, the Pentagon said. He appears to be the first Tibetan-American killed in combat in Iraq.
“He was a very good boy, deeply religious, and [he] talked of serving Tibet as a soldier after he completed his military career as U.S. Marine,” his mother, Radio Free Asia (RFA) Tibetan service broadcaster Rigzin Choedon, said.
From India to Utah and Virginia
“He was very devoted to his grandmother, who lives in Dharamsala [northern India]. He made sure that his grandmother was present at his Marine graduation ceremony.”
“He was very fond of playing basketball every Sunday with other Tibetans,” Choedon said.
Saving for college
Dengkhim graduated from George Marshall High School in Fairfax, Virginia, after moving with his mother and brother from Utah, where the family first settled in the 1990s.
Dengkhim, born in India in 1985, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Sept. 14, 2003.
He had been on active duty in Iraq less than a month at the time of his death. He enlisted in hope of saving money for college, according to a family friend.
U.S. military officials said Dengkhim appeared to have been killed in hostile action in the city of Hadithah, in Iraq’s Anbar Province.
No further details about the incident were immediately available. Tibetan community leaders say he is the first Tibetan-American killed on active military duty in Iraq.
Dengkhim is survived by his mother and older brother, Tenzin Fende Dengkhim, of Massachusetts.
The first?? Are there more than him???
FREE TIBET
ARM THE TIBETANS
I'm sure the Chinese Communists are mournng the fact that they didn't get to persecute, torture, and kill the kid themselves.
It is also a sad loss as Tibet needs heroes to stand up to the evil regime in Beijing and kill those perverts who hold that country in slavery.
Why do we keep score on these matters?
Gives the "diversity" folks a warm fuzzy if they can hyphenate... "Country - American"...
Once I get my green card and then naturalized you can all call me a "British - Canadian - North American - American"...3 hyphens !! Like winning the Lottery !!
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