Names, Stories, and Pictures of the Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.

Army Reserve Specialist Brandon Tobler

http://www.katu.com/news/war_story.asp?ID=55794

Portland soldier falls victim to wartime accident

On Saturday, Gail Tobler's worst fear was realized.
She came home to find a military car in the driveway and three officers at her door. She immediately knew that her son wouldn't be coming home.

A Southeast Portland family mourns for a young man who was just 19-years old.

"The loss is just unbearable, unbearable," said the young soldier's uncle Scott Tom. "He was a dynamic young man. He touched everyone he came in contact with."

Tom speaks fondly of his nephew, showing pictures to KATU, "This is one of my favorite pictures right here. This is a rosy cheeked young man who volunteered to fight for his country."

The soldier, Brandon Tobler volunteered for the Army Reserve as a way to make money for college.

The Franklin High School graduate dreamed of one day becoming a Portland Police officer. But on Saturday those dreams died in the Iraqi desert.

Brandon was traveling north from Kuwait to Baghdad with a military convoy.

His Humvee crashed into the back of another heavy truck during a blinding sandstorm. Brandon was instantly killed.

Last December, KATU spoke to Brandon's mother, who was struggling to get through the holidays without her only child.

"I don't advocate war, especially when it takes our people. but I know our country had to be defended in some way shape or form," said Gail Tobler.

Now her son and her family has made the ultimate sacrifice.

"He told us in church that he was going to Kuwait. And he said, 'It's ok grandma. I'll be in the rear with the gear. It will be ok. I'll be in the rear with the gear," said Tom.

Brandon's body is still in Iraqi in what's called a 'hot zone' where choppers not allowed to fly him out.

So for now, funeral arrangements are on hold.

Marine Sgt. Michael Bitz

http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~27080~1270121,00.html

Ventura mom mourns death of Marine son

By Grace Lee
Staff Writer

VENTURA -- The flame from a single white candle cast shadows Tuesday on pictures of Marine Sgt. Michael Bitz and the twin babies he never knew as his mother learned details of his battlefield death in the Iraqi desert.

"I see," Donna Bellman said into the receiver as she was being told about the final moments in the life of her son, killed by Iraqi soldiers Sunday in an ambush near An Nasiriyah.

"I had a feeling that's when he was killed ... I knew he was killed there."

Bellman's voice broke as the emotions welled up while listening to a friend relay information from a television report.

Bitz, a Hueneme High School graduate and father of four, including a twin boy and girl born a month ago, was among nine Marines killed in the ambush. The 31-year-old sergeant had been assigned to the 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion in the 2nd Marine Division. Also killed was Marine Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, 20, of Los Angeles.

"He was a hero," Bitz's mother said. "He was fighting for all our freedom and to help liberate the people over there."

Bitz's children included a 6-year-old son from a previous marriage; the boy lives in Ventura with Bitz's ex-wife.

His widow, Janina, lives with their 2-year-old son, Joshua, and the newborn twins in Jacksonville, N.C., near Camp Lejeune where Bitz had been stationed.

Bitz joined the military at his mother's urging, she said, when he was in his early 20s and still drifting from job to job.

He chose the Marines "because Michael liked a challenge and the feeling was they were the most fit and the biggest challenge."

The commitment gave him direction, Bellman said.

"It changed his whole personality. He became a better person, more confident in himself."

He shipped out Jan. 12, taking pride in the knowledge he was "part of a bigger mission," she said.

As a Marine, she said, her son didn't have as much time as he wanted with his children. But over Christmas, he was able to spend long stretches of time with them, especially his son, Christian, who will be 7 next week.

"They played a lot of video games and kickball outside. They went to the movies and spent a lot of quality time together."

She said he was an affectionate father, "always wrestling, tickling" and playing steamroller, a game that involves getting on the floor and rolling over each other.

Having grown up without a father, being a good one meant that much more to him, Bellman said.

The middle child of three sons, Bitz was an especially thoughtful teenager and full of surprises, Bellman said.

Once she came home to find that he had cleaned the oven. On another occasion, for his mother's birthday, "he worked really hard and paid for a limo to take me to dinner."

His thoughtfulness also extended to his two brothers, she said. For a family vacation to Yosemite, she told her boys they had to contribute $50 each.

When his younger brother, Steven, came up short, "he went out and earned the money so Steven could go."

"That's the kind of kid he was," she said.

As a student at Hueneme High School in Oxnard, Bitz was a good student who earned Bs and got school credit for working part time, said Principal Tom McCoy. He earned enough credits to graduate a semester earlier than his official graduation year in 1990.

Bellman's roommate, Donna Adams, said she could see how the news of the war was taking its toll on her, even before she received the news of her son's death.

"She had a funny feeling in the last few days. She wouldn't stop looking at the news," Adams said. "She was worried he wouldn't be coming back. She just had a bad feeling."

Bitz's older brother, Robert Bellman, lives in Florida and spent six years in the Navy. His younger brother, Steven Bitz, lives in San Luis Obispo.

Bellman said she will keep her son's memory alive for his children by telling them how much he loved them and his country.

Bellman said she has spoken to her grandson Christian on the phone.

"I asked him what he was doing, and he said, 'I'm holding a picture of my Daddy."'

Lance Corporal David Fribley

http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/1/031736-5051-009.html

Fighting claims 1st Indiana victims

'He . . . led by example rather than with words.'

By Dan McFeely and John Tuohy
dan.mcfeely@indystar.com
March 26, 2003

ATWOOD, Ind. -- This is how war truly hits home.

A loud knock on the door. A glance at the clock. Visitors at 4 a.m.

With two boys in the military, Garry and Linda Fribley had a pretty good idea what to expect when the knock came. Two Marines and a military chaplain confirmed their fear.

Their oldest son would not be coming home alive.

"This was something we knew could happen, but this is what David wanted to do," said Garry Fribley. "I have always told my kids to follow their hearts, and that is what he was doing."

Lance Cpl. David Fribley, 26, was killed in action Sunday, one of nine Marines ambushed by an Iraqi unit that pretended to surrender near An Nasiriyah, a city about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad. He had been in the service about a year.

Tuesday afternoon at the Fribley home in Atwood, a small community west of Warsaw, his father struggled to make sense of what happened in the desert that night.

"They were too nice, and they trusted them," Fribley said. "You can't trust anyone. But David would have given the shirt off his back to help anybody.

"War is ugly. There are no nice guys."

Sitting on a concrete stoop, wiping tears from his eyes, Fribley said he feels no anger against the government. But he had a message for President Bush.

"It is time to take the gloves off. Let's get the job done and get everyone back home."

His youngest son, Steven, serves in the Air Force in Great Falls, Mont. He was expected home Tuesday night to be with his family.

David Fribley's body is still in Iraq. The Marines told his father it could be three or more weeks before the body is returned to the United States.

Fribley's family has turned down an offer to have him buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, he will be laid to rest in a small township cemetery in nearby Etna Green, a short drive from the family home.

"His mother and I want him home," Garry Fribley said. "It was a great honor that he could be buried in Arlington, but we know David. He loved the small town, quiet scene.

"And, if I want to go to talk to him in the cemetery, I can do that here."

Neighbors in Etna Green said the family was a large, hard-working clan that had deep local roots.

Dick Jordan, 67, worked with David Fribley one summer at the local Creighton egg plant.

"He was a tremendous kid," Jordan said. "Not one of those wild types. And he was a hard worker."

David Fulkerson, athletic director at Warsaw Community High School, called Fribley "a quiet kid who was well-respected by his teammates."

"He was the kind of guy who led by example rather than with words."

Fribley played center and defensive end at Warsaw, where he was named most valuable player for both the track and football teams.

Ted Huber, assistant football coach at Ball State University in Muncie, coached Fribley in football and basketball at Warsaw.

"He wasn't a loud guy, but he had a great sense of humor. He had this little smirk he wore when he had just pulled one over on someone. It made people laugh."

After he heard the news Monday night, Fulkerson said, he "drove around town and just broke down crying."

Huber said he was shocked.

"You watch this and see reports of casualties and never imagine that of all the people, it would be someone who was so close to you."

After graduating from Indiana State University in 2001 with a degree in recreational business management, Fribley got a job at Shell Point, a retirement community in Fort Myers, Fla. There, he coordinated events for residents. He loved working with older people.

He was working there when terrorists attacked New York City and the Pentagon.

"It affected him a lot, and that's when he began pondering joining the Marines," said Kathy Nordman, Shell Point spokeswoman.

"One of the retirees here he was close to was a former Marine, and I know he had a lot of discussions with him."

When Fribley left his job, he sent a note to his manager, Tammy Laude.

"The greatest gift one can give is the gift of service," he wrote.

One week after enlisting, he met someone, fell in love and was engaged to be married. The family won't name her because "she has to get on with her life."

After boot camp, Fribley was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., until he was shipped to Kuwait. He called home shortly before the war started.

"He had seen conditions that were worse than you can imagine," Garry Fribley said. "He said something needs to be done.

"(Saddam Hussein) is a bad person -- we all know that. Do I hate him? No.

"Do I hate his regime? Well, they are just thugs who want to rule the world. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. And if we don't take care of this now, 10 to 20 years down the road, we are all going to pay."

From FOX:
Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Following is the official list of American servicemen killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom as of 4:00 p.m. EST Wednesday:

Navy Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, 27, of La Mesa, Calif. Killed when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided over international waters March 22. Assigned as an exchange officer with the Royal Navy's 849 Squadron since October 2002.

Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, 22, of Roswell, Ga. Killed when ambushed by enemy forces in Iraq March 23. Assigned to the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine. Killed in a CH-46E helicopter crash on March 20 in Kuwait. Assigned to the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron — 1, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz.

Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Killed in a CH-46E helicopter crash on March 20 in Kuwait. Assigned to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron — 268, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, 31, of Ventura, Calif. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lance Cpl. Brian Rory Buesing, 20, of Cedar Key, Fla. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers, 30, of Harrison County, Miss. Killed in action on March 21 in southern Iraq. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, 26, of Fort Myers, Fla. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Jose A. Garibay, 21, of Orange, Calif. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, 20, of Los Angeles. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles. Killed in action on March 21 in Southern Iraq. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Sgt. Nicolas M. Hodson, 22, of Smithville, Mo. Killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq on March 24. Assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Evan James, 20, La Harpe, Ill. Drowned while trying to cross the Saddam Canal in southeastern Iraq on March 24. Reservist with the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center, Peoria, Ill.

Pfc. Howard Johnson II, 21, of Mobile, Ala. Killed when ambushed by enemy forces in Iraq March 23. Assigned to the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, 42, of Enfield, Conn. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston. Killed in a CH-46E helicopter crash on March 20 in Kuwait. Assigned to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron — 268, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Lance Cpl. Eric J. Orlowski, 26, of Buffalo, N.Y. Killed by an accidental discharge of a .50 cal machine gun in Iraq. Assigned to the 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

2nd Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr., 31, Nye, Nev. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker, 21, San Diego. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Army Spc. Gregory P. Sanders, 19, of Hobart, Ind. Killed in action March 24 in Iraq. Assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of Easton, Pa. Killed by a grenade while sleeping in a tent at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, on March 22. Assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.

Air National Guard Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, of Boise, Idaho. Died on March 25 from wounds received by a grenade in a tent at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuwait, on March 22. Assigned to the 124th Air Support Operations Squadron, Idaho Air National Guard, Boise, Idaho.

Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Slocum, age unknown, Adams, Colo. Killed in action March 23 in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Army Reserve Spc. Brandon S. Tobler, 19, of Portland, Ore. Killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident March 22 in Iraq. Assigned to the 671st Engineer Brigade, Portland, Ore.

Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore. Killed in a CH-46E helicopter crash on March 20 in Kuwait. Assigned to the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron — 268, 3d Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Cpl. Jose A. Garibay

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=31793&section=NEWS&subsection=AMERICA_AT_WAR&year=2003&month=3&day=26

'If I make it home, I'll tell you'

A young Marine's affection for his friends and family lives on in his letters from the war zone.

By VALERIA GODINES, BRIAN MARTINEZ and JIM HINCH
The Orange County Register

"Hey dude, what's up?" the letter from the tough-talking Marine began. "I'm doing OK. The food and camp suck here. I imagine hell being nicer to visit than here. There are no women here either."

Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay, Orange County's first combat death in Iraq, loved to project a tough image with flaming skull tattoos dancing down one arm and a Brahma bull tattoo - in honor of his favorite wrestler, The Rock - needled on the other.

But the letter ended: "Can you send some candy?"

Garibay was also a homesick 21-year-old Costa Mesa man who wished for more letters from home. He wrote often - to teachers, friends, family. He signed many of his letters, "Hozer," the name his best friends called him. And through the letters, a softer, more complex Garibay emerges.

Feb. 27, 2003: "There will be no knowledge of Camp Shoup in the media. I can't explain it. If I make it home, I'll tell you. We shower one time a week, sleep with rounds, knives and automatics, the gas mask by our side, too. They are still working on lighting in the tents."

March 9, 2003: "Hey, it's been a noisy day. There were jets going constantly over Iraq and helos near the border. We got ice cream for dinner, steak and potatoes and Pepsi. You may not realize how much that meant to us."

Garibay went to Newport Harbor High School, where he played football and wrote the scores of every game on his notebook.

"He was a sincere kid. Good heart. Wasn't the best athlete, not a superstar student," said junior-varsity football coach Mike Bargas. "But he appreciated being involved, and he worked hard. The military was a great fit for him. He felt he was making a contribution to the country."

Garibay died Sunday near An Nasiriyah, Iraq, where Marines were killed in an ambush by Iraqis pretending to surrender. His mother learned of his death early Monday morning when Marines knocked on her door.

And the family received another visit from Marine officials Tuesday evening.

"The only thing they said is, 'Do you want metal or wood for the box?'" said Reyes Garibay, Jose's uncle. "That's not important. We want details. They couldn't tell us how he died. Maybe when they bring the body, they can tell us. We were waiting for some information."

The Marines said Garibay's remains are expected to be flown to the United States within seven to 10 days. The family is planning a service at St. Joachim Church, where Garibay made his first Communion in 1994. And they would like him buried with military honors at the National Cemetery in Riverside.

For now, St. Joachim Church is honoring the family daily this week at the 6 p.m. Mass at 1964 Orange Ave. in Costa Mesa.

Friends and family are still stunned.

Teacher Janis Toman was preparing a care package for Garibay when a reporter called her to deliver the bad news Monday. Toman received 15 letters from Garibay while he served in the Marines.

"I believed in him," Toman said. "He was a little troubled as a freshman, but through the resource program and football, he found the support he needed to become the man that he became."

Aaron Maher, 22, went through a box of Garibay's personal belongings Tuesday afternoon, pulling out the letters and dog tags that Garibay had sent him. Garibay lived with Maher's family for two years while in high school. His mother blessed the living arrangement, saying that the Mahers treated her son like family.

Richard Maher, Aaron's father, said Garibay was a gentle, respectful person. "He always called me, 'Mr. Maher.' He picked up after himself; he did his own laundry. He was a very good kid."

Aaron said Garibay was excited about war but unsure about his future. "He called and left us all messages and e-mails about the experiences and how he appreciated us all, and if he didn't make it back, he loved us. He kept doubting he would return."

Toman received a letter from Garibay on Monday just hours before learning of his death:

"Hey, Janis, So how's everything going? How is your family? Do your students have questions? Jet's flying over, tanks starting up at 2 a.m., tracks kicking up dust

"So what's up at home? Are people worried about a war? Well, anyway I'm gonna go to sleep, there are no lights here. Sundown means lights out. Jose."

Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan

http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-marinekilled0326.artmar26,0,4906228.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

Connecticut Family Mourns Marine
March 26, 2003
By JEFFREY B. COHEN, Courant Staff Writer

ENFIELD -- Everything Amanda Jordan says about her husband is in the present tense.

He is a Marine's Marine. People call him Gump, after Forrest Gump, because he's perpetually optimistic. He worships his 6-year-old son, Tyler, and Tyler worships him.

She speaks in the present, she said, because she's used to everyday life with her husband, Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, away on deployment with the U.S. Marines. So since the moment that two soldiers and a chaplain came to her office Monday to tell her that her husband had been killed in combat in Iraq on Sunday, the reality has yet to set in.

"This is not happening to me," she said, composed but tired at her kitchen table Tuesday. "Today's not different; it's not that he was here every day and now he's not. We're so used to him not being here." She paused. "But you know he's coming back."

Phillip Jordan, 42, a Texas native, was killed along with eight other Marines in a firefight near the Iraqi city of An Nasiriyah. Jordan, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, and was ambushed when Iraqi soldiers feigned surrender before opening fire, Amanda Jordan said.

He was the first Connecticut man killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the second to have died in combat since Sept. 11 - Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman of Windsor Locks was killed in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan in March 2002.

The couple met when Amanda Jordan, a Connecticut native born in Bridgeport, was working as a paralegal in California and Phillip Jordan was stationed at Camp Pendleton, she said. Naturally, she knew he was a Marine when they married in 1994. It was a choice, she said. "We were going to have a normal family when he's here, and when he's not, he's doing his job," Amanda Jordan said.

Several tours later - after service in Operation Desert Storm, after Kosovo, after three years based at Camp Lejeune and another three as a drill sergeant on Parris Island - Phillip Jordan got his orders last fall to be based again at Camp Lejeune. Knowing that he would soon be deployed, the couple decided to make Enfield their home to be closer to family, Amanda Jordan said.

Here, seated at the kitchen table of their Enfield condominium, Amanda Jordan spoke of a man who would go out of his way for anyone.

If she commented during an ice cream commercial that the ice cream looked good, he was out of the door "in two seconds flat," she said. He fixed flat tires for people he didn't know. Even after nine years, every Sunday that he was home he fixed a homemade breakfast with bacon, eggs, biscuits, freshly squeezed orange juice and flowers. He even did laundry.

"He ruined it, but he did it," she said.

And he was perpetually optimistic, she said. Even when it came to war. So, sure, he had his moments of black humor when he joked about how she should collect his life insurance policy - one lump sum is better than installments with interest, he told her - but he was optimistic. Confident. Convinced that he was good at what he did.

But he wasn't into politics. When one friend asked his thoughts on the war, he responded by avoiding politics altogether, Amanda Jordan said. "He just smiled, looked at her, and said, `This is what I do. That's my job.'"

He told his mother-in-law, Gretchen Marcroft, "I don't want to go back to the desert, but I have to go back to do it right this time," she said.

But even though he was often gone, he would write. Letters came, and more probably will come even after his death, in two parts: The first begins, "Dear Amanda," and the second begins, "Dear Tyler." Because he wanted Tyler to have a letter of his own, Amanda Jordan said.

Tyler adores his father and wants to be a Marine himself, she said. "Tyler is very proud of his dad for being a Marine and Phil is the same way with Tyler," she said.

When he left the United States on Jan. 4, Amanda Jordan, 34, had a bad feeling. And she's not one of those people with ESP or gut feelings, she said. But on Saturday, she was ill. On Sunday, she was worse. And on Monday, when the person on the phone at Camp Lejeune would neither confirm nor deny her husband's status, she knew. "Somewhere, he's dead," she said, in a hushed voice so that her son wouldn't hear.

Until Monday, her house was mainly the domain of her son and her two cats. "Now, every person I know has been here," she said, appreciative of the support she has received. "There's pizza, soda, candy, coffee. I don't even drink coffee."

Friends and family surround her, and they describe Phillip Jordan as his wife does: a Marine's Marine and a family man.

Even though others called Phillip Jordan "Gump," Jay Paretzsky, Amanda Jordan's stepfather, spoke of him as Phil. "If you're not close to it, it's difficult to appreciate what a military person is," Paretzsky said. But his way of describing Jordan was simple: trained to kill but soft to the soul.

The calls from journalists throughout the country began early Tuesday afternoon and hadn't stopped by evening. But Amanda Jordan was gracious and willing to talk to reporters, in between calls from family, friends and a network of wives at Lejeune. Because any exposure her husband can get, he deserves, she said.

Phillip Jordan's body will soon be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Amanda Jordan said. Burial arrangements have yet to be made.

2nd Lt. Frederick Pokorney

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Mar-26-Wed-2003/news/20972208.html

Tonopah mourns loss of Marine

Soldier is Nevada's first to be killed in U.S.-led Iraq war

By RICHARD LAKE, KEITH ROGERS AND SAMANTHA YOUNG
REVIEW-JOURNAL

TONOPAH -- If the U.S. Marines were looking for a Marine to show off to the rest of the world, 2nd Lt. Fred Pokorney could have been that man, said people in this small central Nevada town where he went to high school and still has many friends.

"That's the best thing you could say about Fred," said Wade Lieseke, who served as sheriff of Nye County for 12 years and was the man Pokorney considered his father. "He had character. He had morals. He had integrity. He was the epitome of what a Marine should be."

Pokorney, 31, was killed in battle Sunday when a group of Iraqis feigned surrender and instead shot a group of Marines dead. He was Nevada's first casualty in the war against Iraq.

"Anyone that was blessed by knowing Fred has suffered an indescribable loss. We all hurt deeply," the family said in a statement issued in Jacksonville, N.C., where his wife, Carolyn Rochelle, and 2-year-old daughter, Taylor, live.

Officially, the Marine Corps will say only that they are still investigating the Sunday encounter that left Pokorney and at least eight other Marines dead in the vicinity of An Nasiriyah, Iraq.

"We just don't have the information to say what happened," Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens said in a telephone interview Tuesday from the Marines' forward command at Camp As Sayliyah, near Doha, Qatar.

But after the battle Sunday it was widely reported that the Marines at An Nasiriyah were killed when an Iraqi unit holding a white flag opened fire as U.S. forces approached.

Pokorney's family is making arrangements to bury him in Arlington National Cemetery.

"I don't know what his family's going to do," Lieseke said. "He was just their rock."

Pokorney's wife, known as Chelle, was not talking to reporters Tuesday. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., spoke to her.

"You can tell that she was very proud of him and that he was going to Iraq to make the world safer," Berkley said. "He was a good husband and good father. She obviously had deep love and affection for him."

Lieseke said Pokorney met Chelle while he was stationed in Washington state a few years ago. They married about four years ago, he said.

Pokorney enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1993 and was promoted in March 2001 to a command field artillery officer, according to Marine Corps spokesman Michael Giannetti. He was assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. The unit left in January from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Lieseke, 52, said he met Pokorney about 15 years ago, when the teenager was dating Lieseke's daughter. Pokorney was living with an aunt in Tonopah because, Lieseke said, his mother had died and he did not want to live with his biological father in California.

But Pokorney's aunt died when he was about 17 years old, Lieseke said, and Lieseke and his wife, Suzy, took him in.

"He stayed here with us," Lieseke said during an interview Tuesday in his home. "We raised him like our own. He listed us as his mother and father on all his military records."

Pokorney was remembered around Tonopah on Tuesday as a star athlete, a solid student and a dedicated Marine and family man.

"We're going to miss a good person, that's for sure," said George Robertson, who owns a Chevron station in town. He said his son went to high school with Pokorney.

At Tonopah High School, Principal Barbara Floto said Pokorney's death hit some of the students hard.

"Once they realized the impact of the loss of an alumni, they changed from, `Oh, this war doesn't necessarily affect us here,' to, `Wow, this really hits home,' " she said.

Students in the school's leadership class made banners reading "God Bless America" and "We support our troops" that were hung in the hallways on Tuesday.

Floto said the students were proud of one they painted in Marinelike camouflage colors that paid tribute to American troops.

Pokorney was particularly adept at sports. He stood 6 feet, 7 inches tall, Lieseke said, and played both football and basketball.

He played wide receiver, tight end and outside linebacker on the Muckers football team. He was the basketball team's center, recalled Jim Smyth, a Las Vegas attorney, who was his teammate and classmate and "rode long bus rides" with him. "I'm horribly saddened by his death. ... He was a quiet kind of guy. All he was about was playing sports and hanging out with his girlfriend.

"Unlike the rest of (the) kids from the desert, he kept his nose clean. He didn't go out and drink beer. He was quiet and reserved and did his thing," Smyth said.

Fighting back tears, Janet Dwyer, secretary at the high school, recalled his return to Tonopah after boot camp. "I remember him coming back and being all excited in uniform. He was just so proud to be a Marine."

In Washington, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who flew combat missions in the first war against Iraq, called Pokorney a "hero among heroes."

Floto, the school principal, said Gibbons called the school on Tuesday to offer whatever help he could.

She said a memorial service is planned for Pokorney at 8 a.m. Friday at the school.

Lieseke, who served as a helicopter gunner in the Army during the Vietnam War and received two Purple Hearts, said Pokorney excelled as a Marine because he had always sought order and stability in his life.

"Fred's mood was always serious," said Lieseke, who spent 22 years with the Sheriff's Department before losing a bid for a fourth term as sheriff last year. "He liked the discipline. He liked the order."

He received his most recent promotion after graduating from Oregon State University with a degree in military science, Lieseke said.

"The Marine Corps decided he was officer material and sent him through college," said Lieseke. But he added, "A lot of good it does him now."

As proud of Pokorney as Lieseke is, he said he is also bitter that the young man had to go to Iraq at all. "There's not a million Iraqis worth Fred's life," he said.

He said he is hazy about the circumstances of Pokorney's death, and suspected he will always remain so.

"I'm just not sure it's for us to be the liberators of Iraq. Why does it always have to be us?" he asked.

Lance Cpl. Brian Rory Buesing

http://gainesvillesun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Site=GS&Date=20030326&Category=LOCAL&ArtNo=203260343&Ref=AR&Profile=1007

Town mourns death of Marine

Karen Voyles
SUN STAFF WRITER
voylesk@gvillesun.com

Brian Buesing graduated from Cedar Key School in 2000.

EDAR KEY - Florida's smallest public high school was in mourning Tuesday for a graduate who was one of nine U.S. Marines killed in an ambush by Iraqi troops near An Nasiriyah.

Brian Rory Buesing, 20, graduated from Cedar Key School in 2000 and entered the Marines about a month later. On Monday night, his younger sister, Ariele "Lou" Steve, 14, was home alone when two Marines drove to the family's remote home off County Road 347.

"I had seen on television that if they send them (officers) to your house, it could be the worst," Lou said. The officers returned a couple of hours later to follow their orders to tell Buesing's mother, Patty Steve, in person that the second of her four children had died.

She had not seen him in person in nearly three months but would get letters from him about every three weeks.

Family members said Steve was so overcome that she spent much of Monday night and Tuesday holding a huge formal photograph of Buesing in his uniform.

Buesing is also survived by his stepfather, Roger Steve, his father, Bill Buesing, who lives in Central Florida, and brothers Bill Buesing, 22, of North Carolina, and Casey Buesing, 19, of Dunnellon.

Family members said Brian Buesing enlisted in the Marines in part because his stepfather, father and grandfather were all veterans, in part because he calculated he would accrue $30,000 to pay for college and in part because he wanted to serve his country. "He was so proud to be a Marine," Roger Steve said.

"He always knew that this was what he would do after high school," said Maurice Healy, Buesing's high school guidance counselor. Buesing hoped to enter the University of Florida in the fall semester of 2004.

Buesing will be buried in a few days in a cemetery near the home where he grew up.

"I know we could have him buried in the national cemetery in Bushnell, but I know his mom will want him to be buried here where she can go often," Roger Steve said. The family is awaiting additional information from the Marines to make funeral arrangements.

Brian Buesing's military aspirations were well-known to the other 300 students in the kindergarten-through-12th-grade Cedar Key School when he was a student there. Journalism students who wrote up short summaries about each senior completed their mini-profile on Buesing by writing, "We wish him health and safety while serving our nation."

Small town in shock
mong those who knew Buesing well were the 18 others who graduated with him in 2000, including Wesley Rains and Mary Alice Allen. They both said their small coastal community of fewer than 1,000 residents was in shock over Buesing's death.

"He was a regular guy like the rest of us," Rains said. "We all hung out together all the time. This really makes the war way too real here."

Buesing's girlfriend during his junior and senior years in high school was Mandy Wilkerson Peppler. She said they drifted apart as a couple after he went into the Marines. She married, but remained friends with Buesing, who wrote to her regularly.

Peppler still remembers that Buesing's favorite color was baby blue, that he would listen to almost any kind of music when she picked him up to drive to school and how he preferred wearing baggy khakis or jeans and tight T-shirts to show off the muscles he carefully sculpted by working out.

"And he liked to cook a lot," Peppler said. "He would open the refrigerator and make a meal out of whatever was in there. Or he would go out into his family's garden and pick whatever was ripe and cook with that."

Among Buesing's part-time jobs was one as a prep cook at the Island Room restaurant. He also worked at various times opening oysters for a local seafood dealer and detailing used cars for Mike "Salty" Raftis.

"He really liked to watch movies - Jean-Claude Van Damme was his role model I think," Lou said.

Really 'hitting home'

Lou, an eighth-grader at Cedar Key School, and Roger Steve met briefly with past and present students beneath a huge American flag posted at half staff at the end of the driveway at their home Tuesday. A hand-lettered sign under the flag said simply, "God Bless Brian."

Hunter Brown, a junior at the school, brought along a bouquet of flowers in the school colors of purple and gold.

Mostly, Lou and Roger Steve and the students hugged and cried and talked quietly about the tall, thin, free-spirited young man who loved to skateboard and swim and do anything involving physical activity.

Levy County Superintendent Cliff Norris said that although Buesing had graduated, school officials were treating his death the same way they would treat the death of an enrolled student. Counselors were available all day Tuesday for students and staff who needed someone to talk to - and some students opted to go home.

Norris graduated from Williston High School in 1971 - a time when school officials were faced with helping students deal with news about casualties in Vietnam.

"What's different now is that there is so much on television," Norris said. "A death like this (Buesing's) makes the war in Iraq a reality in our community."

Norris said his administration had not issued any specific guidelines on how to handle news of military casualties other than to make sure all war-related news was dealt with on an age-appropriate level.

"This is something no one ever wants to have to deal with," Norris said. "Now this is hitting home - it makes the war real and not only something on television."

Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20030325-1807-warcasualties-rosacker.html

San Diego Marine among the dead in fighting in Iraq

ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:07 p.m., March 25, 2003

BREMERTON, Wash. – The father of a Marine killed during fighting in Iraq knew the bad news when one of his daughters told him that two Marines and a chaplain were at the front door.

Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker of San Diego was among 10 Marines killed in fighting near An Nasiriyah, about 230 miles southwest of Baghdad. He was 21.

His father, Navy Command Master Chief Rod Rosacker, is based at Naval Station Bremerton and assigned as chief of the boat for the Trident ballistic missile submarine USS Alabama. He returned home after several months away on Monday, only to hear that night about his son's death.

"He just wanted to do something for his country, and that's what he did," Rosacker said. "He was doing what he wanted to."

Randal Rosacker was the oldest of three children, and the couple's only son. He grew up in San Diego, where his wife, Brooke, lives.

At Rosacker's home in the hills of San Diego, his wife grew teary-eyed as she declined a reporter's request to speak about her husband.

"I don't want to say anything right now," she said. "It's just too crazy."

In an interview with ABC News before he deployed, Rosacker said his goal in the war was simply "to take care of the guys under me, make sure I'm a good leader for them."

A coach at Junipero Serra High School in San Diego, where Rosacker wrestled and played football and baseball, remembered him as just that, a natural leader.

"You could put Randy in any situation and he would take over the situation and it would be done right every time," said Brian Basteyns, an English teacher who also coaches football and baseball.

"I felt very safe knowing he was defending our country."

Basteyns said Rosacker was nervous about his deployment.

"But at the same time, he knew there was a job to do," he said.

Rosacker was a machine gunner with the Marines, based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He was deployed to the Middle East shortly after the start of the year.

He joined the Marines when he was 18, despite scholarship offers to play college football, his father said.

"His goal was Force Recon," he said, the Marines' special operations team.

Rod Rosacker and his wife, Debra, received letters from their son from the Middle East. The letters, written on used food containers, said how he missed them and complained of sandstorms. His parents mailed him some boxes Monday, with letters, candy and some bandanas for protection against blowing sand.

He leaves behind two sisters, 14 and 21. "They're taking it hard, like you'd expect," their father said.

He said the family will have a military service for their son somewhere in Colorado, where he was born and where he told his parents he wanted to be buried if anything happened to him.

Army Spc. Greg Sanders

http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/1/031734-9001-009.html

Fighting claims 1st Indiana victims
'He wanted to be a soldier. He was born to be a soldier.'

By John Fritze
john.fritze@indystar.com
March 26, 2003

HOBART, Ind. -- Leslie Sanders looked down at the picture of her son, taken when he was about 3, and saw a smiling boy who already had ambition, purpose and a full set of military fatigues.

If there was any solace for this mother, and for the family that wept with her in the living room of their small home Tuesday, it was somewhere in that photograph -- or in what it represented.

U.S. Army Spc. Greg Sanders, who became one of the first casualties of the war with Iraq on Monday when his life was taken by a sniper, had always wanted to be a soldier, even as a boy, and had always dreamed of serving his country.

He was 19 and had been overseas two months.

"He didn't go into the service for the education; he didn't go in for job options when he got out," said Leslie Sanders, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes as she turned the pages of a photo album. "He wanted to be a soldier.

"He was born to be a soldier."

Greg Sanders, whose first letter from the front arrived home here on the same day he was killed, was born and raised in Hobart, just southeast of Gary, but had recently moved to Fort Stewart in Georgia.

He leaves behind a wife, Ruthann, and a 14-month-old daughter, Gwendolyn.

"We're just trying to take it one day at a time," said Ruthann, who spent much of the morning quietly staring at the ground as relatives and neighbors poured into the house to hug her and cry with her.

"We're very proud of him."

Family and Army officials noted that Sanders enlisted as soon as possible -- as a junior at a Hobart High School career fair. He completed basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 69th Armored Regiment, part of the 3rd Infantry Division that has so far spearheaded the U.S.-led drive toward Baghdad.

Sanders deployed to the Middle East in January and rolled across its deserts in an M-1 Abrams. His job was to load the tank's 120 mm cannon. His mother said her son had recently reported that morale was high as he started his mission.

"It's like being a fireman and you train and train, but you never get to go to a fire," said Leslie Sanders, as she searched out loud for comfort. "Our soldiers are trained to go to war, and he's a hero to me because he gets to do his job."

Details of where and how Sanders was killed are vague, but military officials notified the family of his death Monday afternoon and said he had been shot by a sniper somewhere near the Iraqi capital.

The U.S. Department of Defense has not yet officially released his status, and a spokesman for the department did not return a phone call seeking comment. Most of what Sanders knew about her son's location she had learned from television news.

At least 22 U.S. service members have died in the conflict so far, which began in earnest Wednesday night. Sanders, it is believed, is the second Indiana native to die in action, after Marine Lance Cpl. David Fribley, 26, who was killed Sunday.

In Hobart, word spread slowly through a community where yellow ribbons wrap dozens of tree trunks and a flashing sign on Main Street proclaims support for "our troops."

The city's mayor, Linda Buzinec, and Police Chief Brian Snedecor visited the Sanders home Tuesday morning. Buzinec said memorials or special services hadn't yet been planned.

"As I've watched the war unfold for the last few days," said Nick Byrd, a physical education teacher and Sanders' track coach for two years, "you realize that a statistic is just a statistic until it affects you personally and I think that's what's happening here in the school and in the city."

"It's hit home."

Sanders, who graduated in 2001, lettered in track and cross country and had been especially fond of the 800-meter run.

He met his wife at the school and came back for a visit after basic training.

Throughout high school, Sanders had known that his future was with the military, though he wasn't sure whether to join the Army or the Marines, said Sgt. 1st Class Roberto Gallardo, the Army recruiter who persuaded him to join that branch.

"It's like losing a family member -- that's how good I got to know the kid," said Gallardo, who added that Sanders was the first recruit he has lost in war.

But Sanders, who was being considered for officer training, was not a military romantic, his family insisted. He knew there was danger involved.

As a kid, he saw a Navy plane crash on his father's base in California. His father, a deceased Navy veteran, also had talked with him before he made up his mind to join.

"His dad told him it's not going to be all these wonderful things," Leslie Sanders said. "But Greg just said, 'I want to be a soldier.' "

He has three siblings -- two sisters and a brother -- none of whom serves in the military.

It will take at least a week for Sanders' remains to return to the United States from Kuwait. His mother said arrangements were still being made for his burial.

"We've got prayers going in every church around the country," she said. "His morale was so high. He was just very proud to be doing his job."

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