Free Republic

FORT WORTH -A rifle salute by a Marine honor guard shattered the silence at Mount Olivet Cemetery, where hundreds of mourners paid their final respects Saturday to Marine Cpl. Jesus Martin "Marty" Antonio Medellin, Fort Worth's first casualty of the war in Iraq. But it wasn't until a lone trumpeter began playing the forlorn sounds of taps that many in the crowd -- including the Marine's parents, Mary and Freddy Medellin -- began to weep. "Their hearts are troubled, but they're not troubled beyond repair," said the Rev. Paul Danielson, a former pastor at Baptist Church of the Open Door,...

FORT WORTH - It was a time for tears along with Wednesday night prayers at a small Baptist congregation just west of the Fort Worth Stockyards. At the Baptist Church of the Open Door, Marine Cpl. Jesus Martin "Marty" Antonio Medellin was remembered for his warm smile, his mild manner, and his deep brown eyes. Medellin was killed April 7, the first Fort Worth casualty since the war in Iraq started in March. "If I was someone who could paint, perhaps a famous painter, I would paint about the wonderful life of Martin," said Josie Gomez, who like others in...

FORT WORTH - A military chaplain and three members of the U.S. Marine Corps brought the news to the home of Mary and Freddy Medellin on Monday evening: Their second-oldest child had been killed in Iraq. Cpl. Jesus Martin "Marty" Antonio Medellin was Fort Worth's first casualty in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Relatives remembered Medellin, 21, a 2000 graduate of Boswell High School, as a "mild-natured, friendly" person who knew at age 10 that he wanted to be a Marine. "His parents are coping. They are a strong Christian family," Simona Sifuentes, Medellin's aunt, said Tuesday night. "They are very tired...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.