NewsDay - WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- It was Mother's Day and their 24th wedding anniversary when Ray and Lisa Philippon learned that their son was killed in Iraq.
Details of Marine Lance Cpl. Lawrence Philippon's death were not available Monday, but Lisa Philippon said she figured instantly that bad news was being delivered Sunday when officials arrived at the family's West Hartford home.
"I knew. I saw the silhouettes of their hats and they got out and they walked toward our house," she told WVIT-TV.
In addition to his parents, Philippon, 22, leaves behind his fiancee, Olivia Lawrence.
"I never thought in any dream that I would first of all be marrying someone in the military, let alone sending someone off to war that just didn't come back," she said.
Philippon, a former hockey player at Conard High School, is the 24th soldier from Connecticut who was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2002.
His father said that before they received the news, he and his wife were feeling sad for parents who lost loved ones in the war.
"All day long we were feeling guilty that our son was safe and we were feeling bad for all the other 1,600 moms that their kids were lost in Iraq and we didn't even know our son had joined that club."
His parents said they plan to bury Philippon in Arlington National Cemetery. A date for a funeral has not been set.