Connecticut Post -- A Marine from Milford who was awarded a Purple Heart after an insurgent grenade exploded and pelted him with shrapnel earlier this year was killed during combat Friday in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Saturday.

Cpl. Jordan C. Pierson, 21, became the 32nd serviceperson with ties to Connecticut killed since in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2002.

Pierson died during combat operations in the Al Anbar province, a combat hot zone. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division in Plainville.

Word of the Marine's death reached his seaside hometown by late Friday.

“There were two Marines in full dress uniform standing outside their house when his mother got home,” said Rena Lewis, a neighbor. “I saw them there and I knew what it was about.”

Pierson graduated from Foran High School in Milford in 2003 and enlisted with the Marines that December. He postponed studies at the University of Connecticut to serve in Iraq.

“I'm a newspaper junkie and I keep up on everything that's going on with this war,” Lewis said.

“I've gone around feeling as though it's happening over there, and it's so far away. And here it's hitting me big time all of us, now, it's so close to home with Jordan's death.”

Lt. Col. Bill Brown, a city resident and member of the 25th Marine Regiment who served in the Al Anbar province last year, said the area has seen some of the toughest fighting of the war.

“That's where the battle is,” Brown said. “It's the toughest of the fighting, day in and day out.”

Though Brown never met Pierson, he said the loss of any Marine in combat is devastating.

“I know the Marines will keep fighting and doing their best,” Brown said.

“That's what Pierson would want them to do. We will keep the faith and keep the fight. That's the way we honor Pierson and all the Marines who make the ultimate sacrifice.”

Greg Smith, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7788, said Charlie Company, Pierson's unit, is near and dear to his heart.

Members of the VFW have been sending packages to the company. “Any help that the family

needs, I'm sure members of the VFW will provide,” he said. “We're ready to do whatever is necessary.”

For Lewis, that meant bringing to the Pierson family a rotisserie chicken and loaf of Italian bread.

“I didn't know what else to do, really,” Lewis said. “I just wanted to do something. And to tell them how sorry I was for the loss of their son.”

Milford Mayor James Richetelli said he met Saturday with Pierson's mother and father and other family members at the parents' home. “The family is in shock and is trying to process this,” he said.

Family members may be available on Monday to speak to the media and public, said Gloria Amendola, a friend of the family.

A tree in front of City Hall that was lit to honor servicemen and women will be darkened until after Pierson's funeral, Richetelli said. Lights on the tree were lit the day the Iraq war began in March 2003. Pierson has been the only U.S. soldier from Milford killed in the war, Richetelli said.

At about the time Pierson shipped off with Charlie Company for Operation Iraqi Freedom, his mother wrapped a thick yellow ribbon around the widest tree in her front yard.

To her and her neighbors on Whalley Avenue in Milford, the ribbon served as a symbol of hope for Jordan Pierson's return home. “I always noticed that ribbon when I was jogging,” Lewis said. “When I went by a little while ago, it wasn't there." By late Saturday afternoon, it had been down.

Pierson is survived by his parents, Beverley and Eric Pierson; and a brother, Ethan.