Wednesday, April 19 2006 @ 06:54 AM EDT
Contributed by: tomw
Views: 1,167
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KATC -- AVONDALE, La. -- An Avondale man who was recently married was killed in combat in Iraq, the Department of Defense said. 
Lance Cpl. Derrick Cothran, 21, was among four Marines killed Saturday in Al Anbar province, when their Humvee struck a roadside bomb, officials with the defense department announced Monday.
His family learned of the death over the weekend and is now planning a funeral for Cothran, said his grandfather, Johnny Cothran Sr. of Westwego.
"It just tore me up, but there's nothing I can do about it," Cothran said. "It's something the good Lord takes care of."
A 2003 graduate of John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, Derrick Cothran played defensive back on the football team, was an outfielder on its baseball team and a member of the wrestling team, said school coach J.T. Curtis.
"It's tragic that a young man of his caliber would lose his life," Curtis said. "He was a fine Christian young man," whose brother TJ and sister Antoinette also attended the school.
Cothran described his grandson as "a good kid."
"He was smart," Cothran said. "He played good football. He played good baseball."
Curtis said he dropped out of college after two years to join the Marines. "He was a perfect-type Marine. When he told me (he enlisted), it didn't surprise me."
Cothran was assigned to the 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Cothran was the second Curtis graduate to be killed in Iraq, Curtis said. Huey Fassbender III, 24, of LaPlace, was killed on Jan. 6, 2005, by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. He was a sergeant in the Louisiana Army National Guard's 256th Infantry Brigade.
Cothran's death brings to 54 the number of Louisiana service members who have died in Iraq since combat began in March 2003, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a private group that tracks war deaths. |
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I would like to say thank you to you and the other Marines who were in that Humvee with you for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
Semper Fi Devil Dog!