Posted on 04/04/2003 6:19:12 PM PST by Straight Vermonter
Marine Corporal Mark Evnin, 21 of South Burlington, died after a fire fight in Iraq. His family was informed late Thursday. Today the community mourns.
Fielding some tough phone calls, Principal Pat Burke of South Burlington High School both comforts and is comforted by friends in this tight knit community. Mark Evnin was a graduate of the class of 2000. He was shot and killed while serving his country as a scout sniper.
Evnin grew up in South Burlington, so the school community is mourning the loss of one of its own. On the football field he was #72, a lineman for the South Burlington Rebels. Principal Burke says Evnin was a popular kid and teachers and other students who knew him are having a tough time dealing with the loss.
A teacher at south Burlington, Tim Commolli, said Evnin was one of his best students at the imaging lab. He said "it is hard to think of Mark and think of sadness. The two do not go together."
Evnin was the grandson of Burlington Rabbi Max Wall, himself a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. This afternoon Wall described his grandson as one of the finest young men. He had planned to go into the service since he was a kid. Rabbi Wall last heard from Mark in Kuwait. He said Mark was impatient to go after Saddam, to get the job done.
The flag outside South Burlington High School is now at half staff , a symbol of pain and pride for a student, a friend and a marine.
``He wanted to prove to himself that he could really meet a challenge and he told me some time after basic training he was so proud to discover he could be really good at something and he felt really good about himself,'' said his mother, Mindy Evnin.
``All they know so far is that they told me he was in a firefight, and he was shot in the abdomen, and they were trying to treat him and he died,'' she said.
In Bennington, more mourning as the mother of Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class Erik A. Halvorsen, 40, comes to grip with his death. Halvorsen was killed Wednesday while flying a Blackhawk helicopter.
"I don't know why this happened, but I have to accept it," says Halvorsen's mother Dorothy.
Dorothy Halvorsen says she still doesn't know exactly how her son Erik was killed in Iraq two days ago. She does know he was piloting a helicopter, the job he has performed for 16 years in the Army. It was the job he always wanted as he grew up in Bennington. Now his family is coping with the loss of the perfect little brother to three older sisters and the perfect son.
"Yes, he was the baby" says Dorothy through tears. "And he was the one you could always count on. The one who would do anything for you. And he was such a straight honest guy. A good guy."
Erik Halvorsen was already a combat veteran who served in the first Gulf War twelve years ago. He shipped off to Kuwait in January to fight in the gulf again. But his mother said this time, he sensed something was different.
"When he was here for Christmas he was nervous about the thought that he'd have to go over, putting all his affairs in order."
As she waits for answers, Mrs. Halvorsen hopes her son and other heroes like him will be remembered for their sense of honor and duty.
"We have to support them. It doesn't mean you have to be in favor of war. It isn't about politics or economics. It's about men and women crawling around in the sand..." her sentence trails off as she breaks down and sobs. Pulling herself together Dorothy says, "we have to support them".
Semper Fi.
L
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