Free Republic

Marine Cpl. Armando Ariel Gonzalez died while serving his adopted country. On Tuesday, the day he was buried, that country adopted him by giving him U.S. citizenship. Eduardo Aguirre, acting director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, presented the citizenship certificate to Gonzalez's family at his funeral Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. Aguirre brought a message from President Bush: "We as a nation share in your mourning." Gonzalez, 25, died on April 14 in Iraq in an aircraft refueling accident. The Hialeah resident, who came to the United States from Cuba about eight years ago, was the...

HIALEAH -- Marine Cpl. Armando González, the first South Floridian to die in the war with Iraq, did not have many blood relatives in the United States. But for the dozens of people who gathered at a backyard Mass in his honor Wednesday, he was an adopted son or brother. Many of the 50 or so people also have loved ones overseas who they have not seen or even heard from for months. They reached out to González's family after hearing that the 25-year-old Marine died when a commercial refueling truck he was working on collapsed on him Monday.

HIALEAH -- A Marine from Florida died in an aircraft refueling accident in southern Iraq, the U.S. Defense Department said. Cpl. Armando Ariel Gonzalez, 25, of Hialeah, was killed Monday when a commercial refueling truck collapsed as he worked beneath it, said Capt. Don Caetano, spokesman for the Marine Corps Air Station at Beaufort, S.C., where Gonzalez was based. Gonzalez came to the United States from Cuba in 1995 and learned English at nearby Miami-Dade Community College, said his grieving father, Julio Orlando Gonzalez, 69. He had been a Marine for about 2-1/2 years. "I'm very proud of him. He...

<p>BAGHDAD — An infuriated Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the commander of U.S. Army forces in Iraq, warned his subordinates Tuesday that soldiers were getting lax now that the fighting has died down.</p> <p>"We cannot, we cannot, we cannot allow our soldiers to relax their guard," Wallace said.</p>

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. 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.