Wednesday, April 26 2006 @ 05:38 AM EDT
Contributed by: River97
Views: 847
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 www.starbulletin.com -- Two Kaneohe-based Marines who had been deployed only a month ago to Iraq for a second tour of wartime duty were killed in separate incidents last week in Al Anbar province, the Pentagon said yesterday.
Cpl. Eric R. Lueken, 23, of Dubois, Ind., was killed Saturday, and Staff Sgt. Jason C. Ramseyer, 28, from Lenoir, N.C., was killed Thursday.
Both men were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, stationed at Kaneohe. Lueken reported to Hawaii in May 2004, and Ramseyer in November 2003.
Since 2004, 54 Marines and three sailors based out of Kaneohe have been killed in the Middle East.
Lueken, a field radio operator who joined the Marines in 2003, was in a convoy when an improvised bomb exploded, mortally wounding him, said 2nd Lt. Binford Strickland at Kaneohe.
According to family members, Ramseyer, the father of two toddler girls and a boy, was working as a bodyguard for a commander. On foot patrol, he examined an object lying in the road. The device, a remote-controlled bomb, exploded, killing him, Strickland said.
"We've lost a family member, but the Marine Corps has lost a top Marine and the Corps was blessed to have his services," said Tommy Hooks, the stepfather of Ramseyer's widow, Mandy. Hooks was in Kailua yesterday afternoon to help bring Mandy Ramseyer and her children to North Carolina, where funeral services will be held.
Hooks said Ramseyer was so determined to be a Marine, he joined before he graduated from West Caldwell High School in Lenoir, N.C.
"He was a Marine's Marine. The Marines was his life," Hooks said.
Ramseyer, who joined in June 1996, held a second-degree black belt in the Marines' Martial Arts Program and served as an instructor in hand-to-hand combat.
Hooks said that he wants Ramseyer's children "to remember that their daddy was a hero." |
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I would like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
Semper Fi Devil Dog!