Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, 26, of Cape Coral, Fla., was killed in action March 23 near An Nasiriyah, Iraq, ambushed by Iraqi troops pretending to surrender. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. A native of Atwood, Ind., Fribley was a four-year letterman in track coached by his father, Garry and a threeyear letterman in football at Warsaw (Ind.) Community High School before competing in the shot put and discus at Indiana State University.
Fribley, who was single, moved to the Fort Myers, Fla., area after his graduation from Indiana State in 2001. He worked for about a year as the recreation coordinator at the Shell Point Retirement Community complex. He enlisted in the Marines in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, following a family tradition of service. Several members of his family served in World War II and the Korean War, his father told The Associated Press from his home in Atwood. "He had no problem," Garry Fribley said. "He knew what it was going to be like going in, and it was everything he thought it would be."
Before the younger Fribley was sent to Iraq, heand his father had talked about the possibility of being ambushed by Iraqis pretending to surrender, the very scenario in which he was killed.
"Thats part of war," Garry Fribley said. "There are no rules in war. . . . Its time to take the gloves off. Were so intent on being the nice guys, and they (Iraqi soldiers) are not going to abide by anything."
There was a moment of silence observed in Fribleys memory Tuesday at his alma mater, Warsaw Community High School.
A tribute to Fribley is being run on the schools electronic sign.
Dave Fulkerson, Warsaws athletic director, said Fribley was an outstanding leader while in school.
"Ive been here 21 years and I cannot think of any kid who worked harder, both on the field and in the classroom," Fulkerson told the Times-Union of Warsaw. "He was a great individual. Its just a tragic loss to his parents, the high school and our entire community."
"Its devastating to all the employees," Shell Point spokesperson Kathy Nordman told the Fort Myers News-Press. "He was such an enthusiastic person. We are stricken by the news."
In addition to his father, Fribley is survived by his mother, Linda.
SILKY....thank you for a WONDERFUL post. I can't believe how young they all were. Blessings to them and their families and blessings to you for remembering them.
Cpl. Jose Garibay was one of those students that stuck with Janis Toman.
A teacher and tutor at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, Calif., Toman helped an unfocused freshman learn, mature, graduate from high school in 1999 and then proudly join the Marine Corps.
Almost four years later, Garibay still was writing her letters and sending e-mail.
Sometimes the notes were scribbled on the front and back of a single sheet of notebook paper. He usually asked about her students. Once in a while, there was a bit of fear about the looming war with Iraq. The last letter came from somewhere in the desert, where Garibay was stationed with his mortar unit.
"Most of the letters were very positive and upbeat," Toman told The Gazette on Wednesday night. "I got the last one Monday, and he told me they were so happy to have had a steak dinner, potatoes and ice cream and how much he appreciated it. The last line of the letter said they were moving out, an indication they were going forward."
Garibay did move forward.
Others in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which is based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., joined him. Sometime on Sunday, March 23, he died when an Iraqi rocket-propelled grenade struck the armored personnel carrier he was riding in near An Nasiriyah. He was one of seven Marines killed that day in that area.
Garibay is survived by his mother, Simona; four siblings; and uncles Urbano and Reyes Garibay.
His mother, who lives in Costa Mesa, Calif., is a housekeeper at a hospital. Garibay was a baby when he and his family came to the United States as undocumented immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico. Simona and Jose later became legal residents.
"He wanted to become a citizen so he could vote and become a police officer," Toman said. "He wanted to work on a SWAT team."
Garibay was proud of his Mexican heritage. In his last letter to his mother, written in Spanish, he asked her to send him a Vicente Fernandez compact disc because he missed Mexican music, The Orange County Register reported.
Still, he assimilated into American culture. He played football for Newport Harbor, a "husky" 5-foot-7 reserve offensive and defensive lineman, assistant coach Mike Bargas said.
"He was not a starter, but he worked as hard as any starter, and he knew his role," Bargas told The Gazette. "He enjoyed the discipline of our football program. He recently wrote to a teacher (Toman) and said it helped instill the work ethic that he also learned in the Marines. He was proud to be a Marine. When he had time off, he would come by, and he wore his uniform with pride." Toman was home Monday night, reading what proved to be the last letter . After reading about the beloved steak dinner, she prepared a care package. "I thought he might like some goodies, granola and cookie bars," she said. Then the telephone rang. A reporter told her Garibay was dead. The next morning at school, administrators told students Garibay was killed and asked for a moment of silence. In the classroom Toman shares with fellow teacher and tutor Jackie Stadler, students and teachers spoke about Garibay. "He was nice. He was orderly," Stadler said. "That sounds funny, but he was always respectful and appreciative, unlike some high school kids can be. We tried to convey that it was a volunteer situation, that he was brave, that the Corps was important to him." Toman spoke about Garibay, but she figures her students learned more from her tears.
"The students all made the comment," Toman said, "that it really brings war home when you see your teacher crying."
Originally posted by Silky Robert Dowdy was 18 months from retirement when his convoy was ambushed near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq on Sunday, March 23.
Jonathan Lee Gifford's family kept themselves busy while awaiting word of his fate.
He had been listed as missing in action March 23 when his unit was ambushed while it attempted to secure bridges near the outskirts of Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Gifford's mother, Vicky Langley, and grandmother, Reva Godfrey, printed about 700 buttons with Gifford's Marine photo on them and distributed them around the Decatur, Ill., area. They said it comforted them when they saw people they didn't even know wearing one of the buttons.
Four Marine Corps members came to Langley's door Friday and said her son's remains were found inside an amphibious assault vehicle that his unit used in southern Iraq.
Gifford was in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. He had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
A Marine Corps report indicates Gifford's unit was caught in a fierce firefight as the enemy mounted a determined attack from buildings in the immediate area.
Vicky Langley said her son always wanted to be a Marine. She talked him out of joining twice before he enlisted in Oct. 2001. His mother described him as a prideful person. She said he admired the Marines because, "they take pride in what they do."
Langley last spoke with him when he called in February.
"He said with the way people were treated over there that he was willing to go," she said. "He was like everyone else who went to Iraq - he wanted to go and get it done and get back."
Before joining the Marines, Gifford worked as a laborer at Archer, Daniels and Midland, a large grocery distributor near Decatur.
He graduated in 1991 from Stephen Decatur High School where he played football and wrestled.
The outdoors was his first love. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. Gifford shot a trophy 10-point white tail deer that is listed in the Pope and Young archery record book. And he was an expert fisherman.
"He'd bring fish home to me all the time," his mother said.
Gifford, who was divorced, is survived by his 4-year-old daughter, Lexie Gifford; his father, John; his mother; grandmother; and two stepsisters.
Cpl. Jorge Gonzalez's parents saw their dead son flashed on television Sunday, March 23, through images shown on an Arab network.
Their 20-year-old son, the father of an infant, was lifted by an Iraqi soldier and displayed in front of the camera.
Mario Gonzalez collapsed to the floor in shock at his home in Rialto, Calif.
"Our eyes saw it, but our hearts were hoping it wasn't so," he said.
"Maybe it's not him," he told his wife over and over.
The couple didn't tell their five other children what they saw.
The next day, they got the confirmation they didn't want when U.S. Marine officials arrived at their house.
"When they came to inform me, I said, 'I already know,' " Gonzalez's mother, Rosa, told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday.
Gonzalez was among several Marines killed Sunday near the town of An Nasiriyah. He was assigned to the 1 st Battalion, 2 nd Marine Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Gonzalez's wife, Jazty, 25, gave birth to their son, Alonso, on March 3 at Camp Lejeune. Gonzalez shipped out weeks earlier, never getting to meet his son.
Gonzalez, an avid soccer player, enlisted in the Marines after high school. He wanted to leave the service in about a year and become a police officer, working in the toughest neighborhoods to help clean them up.
His mother didn't want him to join the Marines.
"Don't worry, Mom," he told her. "If I die a Marine, I'll die honored."
Rosa Gonzalez received a letter from her son Tuesday dated March 10. It said, "If you can wait just a little, I'll see you in the summer, if God wants it."
Private Nolen R. Hutchings, 20, Boiling Springs, S.C.
4-23-03
For about three weeks, Larry and Carolyn Hutchings lived with the doubt and fears associated with having their son, Nolen, listed as missing in Iraq. Then the Defense Department confirmed the worst; Nolen Ryan Hutchings was killed, apparently by friendly fire.
His father was relieved to find out what happened Sunday, March 23, during a fight outside Nasiriyah. "The relief in knowing for sure what's going on," he said. "Of course, we're not happy with the results, but just knowing he's with God is a comfort to us."
Hutchings said his son's unit, the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, was trying to secure a bridge when air support was called and and the unit was hit.
Nolen Hutchings grew up wanting to be a Marine and enlisted soon after graduating from Boiling Springs High School in 2000, his father said.
Last year, he returned to his school to recruit for the military.
"He was very proud to be a Marine. You could tell that," said Gerald Moore, principal of Boiling Springs High School.
Hutchings said it didn't matter that his son died in friendly fire because accidents always happen. "The Iraqis are free. We see their happy faces and realize he wasn't there in vain," he said.
Private First Class Howard Johnson II, 21, Mobile, Ala
About the time Howard Johnson II died Sunday, March 23, near Nasiriyah, Iraq, his father heard him call out. "(Howard Sr.) heard him call his name, Daddy, when he was in the pulpit," Gloria Johnson said of her husband, the pastor of Truevine Baptist Church. "It was probably when he was injured."
The elder Johnson experienced a strong feeling this year when he drove his son to the New Orleans airport before he was deployed.
"I might well be looking at my baby for the last time. That feeling never left me," the elder Johnson told the Mobile Register.
Johnson died when his 507 th Ordnance Maintenance Company was ambushed near Nasiriyah.
He graduated from LeFlore High School in 2001 and joined the Army two weeks later.
"He was a wonderful child, always sharing," Gloria Johnson said. "Were doing as well as can be expected, but its not easy."
Delores Walker, a church member, said: "Were so sad that hes gone, but we know God knows best."
Mobile City Councilman Clinton Johnson, no relation, said a ceremony is planned for Wednesday as a way for the community to tell Johnsons family, "Were in this with you."
"His father lost his only boy, a boy he had prayed to have for 17 years," said Clinton Johnson, who is a pastor. "The experience of having his life snuffed out is a tremendous emotional and spiritual challenge."
Johnson wrote his fourthgrade Sunday school teacher, Gertrude Mosley, every week after he entered the Army.
"He always had a smile on his face and always helped me," she said. "He was very lovable."
Staff Sergeant Phillip A. Jordan, 42, Danbury, Texas
3-27-03
"To fellow Marines, Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, 42, was "The Gump," a man who, like the movie character Forrest Gump, was eager to help anyone in need.
To his wife, Amanda, 34, he was an avid sportsman and "the kindest man on Earth."
To his son, Tyler, 6, he was a larger-than-life hero who spent every free hour making sure his son knew he loved him.
Jordan, a decorated veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and other military action, died Sunday, March 23, in combat near An Nasiriyah, Iraq, while serving with the 1 st Battalion, 2 nd Marine Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
He was stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and shipped out Jan. 4 for Kuwait.
At the time of his death, he was four years from retirement.
"Phillip's whole life revolved around Tyler," Amanda said Tuesday from Entfield, Conn., where she is working as a paralegal.
"He had seen action before and was prepared," she said. "So we never really thought it could happen to him. . . . We talked about moving to Entfield and his becoming either an ROTC instructor or a physical education teacher here. He loved kids."
Staff Sgt. Scott Hamm of Redding, Pa., was stationed with Jordan at Camp Lejeune and served with him at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., where they were drill instructors. There was no better role model for new Marines, Hamm said.
"He had a way of talking to young men who had no fathers or who had come from abusive homes and getting through to them," Hamm said. "He was a natural."
Jordan attended the University of Texas on a football scholarship but dropped out after a rotator cuff injury. Then he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, moved to San Diego and, while in remission, decided to enlist in the Marines. He met Amanda through friends while moonlighting as a bouncer at a sports bar near Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he was stationed. Five weeks later they eloped and married in Las Vegas.
While awaiting action, Jordan sent Amanda e-mails and called her a few days before their ninth anniversary, March 19, from Doha, Qatar. He told her he was moving out and tried to reassure her with humor.
"I knew he was all right because he was happy he had found a Hardee's and a Baskin-Robbins and said he had waited in line for two hours for an ice cream cone," she said.
That was the last time she heard from Jordan.
"I got used to him going and coming and going," she said. "But it still hasn't sunk in - he's not coming back this time. He was proud to be a Marine. It's what he did, and he was good at it. And he was a great husband and father."
In addition to Amanda and Tyler, Jordan is survived by his mother-in-law and father-inlaw, Gretchen Marcroft and Jay Paretzky of Entfield, and a brother-in-law, Kyle Marcroft of Kentucky."
"Nathaniel Ethan Kiehl will never meet his father, U.S. Army Spc. James Kiehl.
But at some point after hes born in the next few weeks, he will hear his fathers voice.
Before Kiehl was deployed, he gave his wife, Jill, a teddy bear with a spare copy of his dog tags around its neck, said Jills mother, Teresa Oliver of Des Moines, Iowa.
Kiehl also left his unborn son a second bear one that could record messages. "Baby, daddy loves you," was the message, Oliver said.
Kiehl was a computer technician with the 507 th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas.
He died after he and others were ambushed Sunday, March 23, in Iraq, part of the group that included Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued from an Iraqi hospital last week.
Kiehl grew up in southern California.
After his parents, Randy and Carol, divorced, he lived with his mother. At 12, he moved to Comfort to live with his father, said his stepmother, Janie Kiehl.
In Comfort, a town of 2,400 northwest of San Antonio, Kiehl starred on his high school basketball team, the Bobcats.
At 6 feet 5 inches tall as a freshman, and 6 feet 7 inches when he graduated in 2000, he played three years on the varsity team, Janie Kiehl said.
The team never won a state championship but was competitive every year.
"There was one other player who was was 6 foot 6 also," she said. "We called them the twin towers."
In addition to basketball, Kiehl played the trumpet in the school marching band.
Randy Kiehl, James father and himself an Army veteran, said his son always had time for other people. Whether it was working with band members, helping a friend repair a truck or assisting someone with an apartment move, his son was there, he said.
"James was always around here," Randy Kiehl said. "I didnt have to worry about things getting done. Id think to myself I had to mow the grass today. Before I did it, hed (James) already have done it."
Kiehl enlisted in the Army seeking an education, Janie Kiehl said.
James Kiehl met Jill, 21, then also an Army specialist, at Fort Gordon, Ga. They married in August 2001.
Nathaniel, James and Jill Kiehls son, is due May 4. Knowing of Kiehls likely deployment, the couple learned the babys gender and named him before James left.
"I was asked the other day, What is the one picture you try to hold in your mind? " Randy Kiehl said. "Its not just one. Ive got a whole lifetime of memories."
In addition to his father, mother, stepmother and wife, James is survived by a halfbrother, Frank Howland".
Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, Pecos, Texas
4-11-03
"Johnny Villareal Mata was among soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company ambushed near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq on Sunday, March 23.
Matas body was found last week in an Iraqi hospital during the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. His body was identified Friday at a Delaware mortuary. He leaves behind a wife, a 16-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. After the attack, military officials confirmed two soldiers died in the fight and five were taken prisoner. Others were listed as missing but later were found dead, except for Lynch.
Mata grew up in the west Texas town of Pecos 200 miles from Fort Bliss, where the 507 th is based. Mata, a 16-year Army veteran, enlisted after high school, where he played center on the football team, said a childhood friend, Elias Payan.
"He was small, but his heart was big," said Payan, who grew up across the alley from Mata. "That was what made him what he was. He was an aggressive guy. He was a great family man, who sacrificed for his kids. Were all able to kiss our children goodnight because he sacrificed for his country. Hes my hero."
Lance Corporal Patrick R. Nixon, 21, Gallatin, Tenn.
4-5-03
Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Nixon wanted to teach history someday.
Instead, he became part of it when his duty status was changed this week from "whereabouts unknown" to "killed in action."
Nixon, serving with the 1 st Battalion, 2 nd Marine Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., was trying to secure a bridge Sunday, March 23, on the outskirts of Nasiriyah. He was one of eight Marines ambushed and listed as missing. His body was recovered March 30, the Department of Defense said.
A candlelight vigil for Nixon was observed Sunday night in Gallatin, Tenn., where his family moved after he left home.
About 200 residents gathered to remember him and to pray for his comrades in Iraq, said Tracy Carman of the Gallatin Chamber of Commerce.
Nixon was a 2000 graduate of Nashvilles Overton High School.
"He was a kid a lot of people wouldnt notice," said his former English teacher, Anna Doherty of Nashville. "He was honest and sweet and very special to me.
"He wasnt a superstar, or a sports star, or in the top 10 of his class," she said. "But some kids just work their way into your heart, and he was one of those."
"English probably wasnt Patricks favorite subject, but he thanked me often for, as he put it, kicking my butt. He did love the work of the Scottish poet of the common man, Robert Burns, and was especially mesmerized by his songs," Doherty wrote in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. "I think he connected with the idea that there is honor in the ordinary life."
"Patrick had a simple plan for his life and he was working it when he died," Doherty wrote in her letter. "A career in the military. Maybe become a history teacher. Get a little land and have some horses. Patrick Nixon was Everyman, the everyday American who doesnt ask for much in life and gives his countrymen and countrywomen all that he does have."
Nixon enlisted in the Marines while still in high school, along with his best friend, Jonathan Bledsoe, who is serving in Iraq, said Nancy Ezell, his high school guidance counselor.
"Patrick was a good, average kid who always did what he was supposed to do," she said. "He sure wanted to be a Marine."
Survivors include his parents, David and Debra Nixon, and a sister, Ginger Ford
"The nation will remember Lori Piestewa in ceremonies in Washington, D.C., this spring as the first Native American woman killed in combat. Her own nation, however, the Hopi Tribe from the dry mesas of Arizona, sees her as the bearer of a tradition of women warriors.
Piestewa, a mother of two, was confirmed dead Friday after U.S. forces recovered her body during the rescue of prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. The tribal member was killed when Iraqi troops ambushed the Texas-based 507 th Ordnance Maintenance Company on March 23.
Over the weekend, yellow ribbons fluttered in the wind around Piestewas home, where family members grieved with close friends, according to The Associated Press.
"This has hit the whole tribe really hard," said Albert Northrop, a Hopi man who works in a nearby general store. "But we are still really proud of her. We have a tradition of maiden warriors."
The Hopi, Northrop said, celebrate the memory of Hé-é-é, a young girl who centuries ago was having her hair braided by her mother on the outskirts of the village when she spotted a group of Apache warriors approaching. Hé-é-é jumped up with her hair unfinished and rushed to warn the men of the village. Then, picking up her fathers bow, she fought alongside the men until the intruders were driven off.
"So you see we understand that women have to fight to protect their families its in our history," Northrop said, adding that everyone who comes into the store is proud of the warrior maiden.
Hopi dancers celebrate Hé-é-é in a ceremony in which she leads a group of male warriors with a bow in one hand, a rattle for warning the people in the other, and one side of her hair hanging loose.
Last week, when Piestewa was missing in action, about 200 people from her hometown of Tuba City, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation, marched in similar procession down the main street holding Piestewas picture and waving signs of support.
The Hopi, who number about 11,000, will remember Piestewa with a public memorial in the coming days. Piestewas family, who prayed daily for her safe return in the week she was missing, now is praying for her safe journey to the next world in their own private ceremony, tribal spokeswoman Vanessa Charles said.
On Memorial Day, observers will scatter rose petals over the reflecting pool of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the loss of Piestewa and other women. Her story also will be told in an exhibit on 200 years of Native American women in war at the memorial this spring.
Piestewa is survived by a son, 4, and daughter, 3."
Second Lieutenant Frederick E. Pokorney Jr., 31, Tonopah, Nev.
3-28-03
"Second Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr. "a wonderful, all-around kid" was one of nine Marines killed Sunday, March 23, when Iraqis pretending to surrender near An Nasiriyah, Iraq, opened fire instead. Pokorney was assigned to Headquarters Battery, 1 st Battalion, 10 th Marine Regiment, 2 nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Pokorneys brother-in-law, Rick Schulgen, told The Associated Press the family is grieving for "a proud father, a proud husband and a proud Marine" whom they hope to bury in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
"His first love was his family. His second love was the Marines," Schulgen said.
"Anyone that was blessed by knowing Fred has suffered an indescribable loss. We all hurt deeply."
Pokorney, 31, lived in a cream-colored house outside Camp Lejeune.
A white mailbox at the end of the driveway was adorned with a pink bow, interlaced with a red, white and blue ribbon.
Residents in the small mining town of Tonopah, 220 miles northwest of Las Vegas, remember Pokorney as a tall, strapping athlete who worked hard and fended for himself.
"He was just a wonderful all-around kid," said Janet Dwyer, a secretary at Tonopah High School, where Pokorney graduated in 1989.
"He was someone youd be proud to call your son."
The 153-student high school plans a memorial service today, Dwyer said.
The 6-foot, 5-inch tall Pokorney played on the varsity basketball and football teams, the Muckers, school officials said.
His former basketball coach, Tim Mutch, a former Marine, said he used to talk about military service when Pokorney lived with him in Tonopah for about six months in 1989.
"I always told him, If you want to go into the military, you might as well go with the best, " the Marine Corps, said Mutch, who now teaches at Winnemucca Junior High School in northern Nevada. "I told him theyll challenge you, physically and every other way."
Pokorney rarely mentioned his parents, Mutch said, and lived with another family when he first moved to Tonopah.
The teen worked as a waiter, dishwasher and cook at the now-closed Mizpah Hotel, he said.
Pokorney moved to Corvallis, Ore., after graduation and attended Oregon State University.
He later moved to North Carolina with his wife, Carolyn, said his former neighbor, Dave Sodeman of Corvallis.
"He was a wonderful dad and husband," Sodeman said. "Hed do just anything for you."
Pokorney also is survived by a 2-year-old daughter."
Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!
Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE
