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May 26
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Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Codner, USMCThe Department of Defense announced on May 27 the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Codner, 19, of Wood River, Nebraska, died May 26 due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Grand Island Independent -- SHELTON, Nebraska -- Grappling Thursday with the realization that her fianci wouldn't return for the wedding they had planned, 19-year-old Megan Kirkover of Shelton talked about the young man who was to be her husband. "Everybody loved Kyle. He's the kind of guy that everyone liked," she said of her fianci, Lance Cpl. Kyle Codner, who was one of three U.S. Marines killed Wednesday in Iraq. "He was good at everything." Codner, a 2003 graduate of Shelton High School, had plans to marry Kirkover when he returned to the States. Kirkover was going to move to California, where Codner was stationed at Camp Pendleton, and the two were going to begin their new life together. "He was just very unselfish and very giving and could always make people laugh, and that's what I love about him," Kirkover said on Thursday, speaking from Codner's parents' home in Shelton. His mother, Dixie Codner, said the family learned of Kyle's death about 6 p.m. Wednesday. "They told us he was killed in an explosion of some sort," Mrs. Codner said. She said her son joined the military on June 16, 2003, and was deployed to Iraq in mid-February. His deployment was to last seven months, and the family hoped to see him home safe around mid-September. "He was pretty subdued about what he told us," Mrs. Codner said, mentioning that the family communicated with Kyle via e-mail and phone calls, which came about once a week. "He didn't want to scare us. What he did was dangerous because he was a combat engineer, and it was his job to look for land mines and IEDs (improvised explosive devices)." According to the Associated Press, a statement from the U.S. military said three Marines died on Wednesday in Anbar province "while conducting security and stability operations." No further details were released due to security, the statement added. Anbar province extends from the western suburbs of Baghdad to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It includes resistive insurgency centers such as Fallujah, Ramdi and Qaim. "One thing he always told me was that freedom isn't free, and I don't think he thought people realized that," Mrs. Codner said. She described her son as a great kid who was interested in sports. He was involved in speech and drama in school and with a youth group at the Shelton United Methodist Church. "The last time we saw him was about a week before he left (for Iraq)," Mrs. Codner said. She said she and Kirkover flew out to California for a couple of days, when they "did all sorts of silly things" with Kyle. They went to Sea World and the Wild Animal Park, ate at fancy restaurants and stayed in a fancy motel, for which Kyle insisted on paying. Kyle's father, Wain Codner of Shelton, was unable to make the trip. He stayed at home to tend to the farm and cattle instead. Pfc. John Gilstrap, 19, of Shelton went to school with Kyle from the fourth through the 11th grades. The last time he talked to his friend was prior to Kyle's deployment to Iraq, which, to Gilstrap, wasn't anything out of the ordinary. "It seemed pretty standard to me, because that's where most Marines are going right now," Gilstrap said on Thursday, the day he learned of his friend's death. Gilstrap, who is in the Marine Corps Reserve, said Kyle was promoted pretty quickly and was an outstanding Marine. He described Kyle as smart, athletic and having a good head on his shoulders. "He was full of personality, and he could always make somebody laugh," Gilstrap said of Codner. "He never seemed down or depressed to me. "It's terrible that it had to happen," he said of his friend's death, "but sacrifices like this do have to be made for us to live the life we have. "I just want to say that he's a great person and a great Marine," Gilstrap added. "What he did in the Marine Corps was phenomenal. He's going to be very missed out here." In addition to his parents and fianci, Codner is survived by a sister, Melissa, and grandparents, Del and Deloris Shupe of Grand Island and Louise Codner of Shelton. |
 
Cpl. Matthew C. Henderson, USMCThe Department of Defense announced on May 27 the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Cpl. Matthew C. Henderson, 25, of Lincoln, Nebraska, died May 26 due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ WOWT 6 News -- OMAHA, Nebraska -- More than 800 people gathered Thursday for the funeral of Marine Cpl. Matthew Henderson. The Lincoln man was killed in Iraq on May 26th. Matthew's father, Owen Henderson, stood before the congregation at First Plymouth Congregational Church and spoke about his son, whose American flag-draped coffin sat a few feet away in front of the altar, surrounded by red, white and blue flowers. Owen Henderson said his son loved his wife, family and also his golden retriever Rocket, who died when Henderson was in Iraq. The elder Henderson said the first time he smiled after learning of his son's death was "when I finally realized that Rocket was there waiting for Matt to come." After his comments, he stood in front of his son's coffin and saluted, with a Marine Corps member standing beside him. Cpl. Henderson was killed along with another Nebraskan, Lance Cpl. Kyle Codner,19, of Shelton, while they were clearing roads of explosive devices. During the service, Marine Corps members presented Matthew Henderson's widow Jaimie with a Purple Heart for the wounds resulting in her husband's death. The soldiers stood in front of her, opened the certificate and the box holding the Purple Heart, handed it to her and saluted. Henderson joined the Marines in September 2000 after spending two years at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He graduated from Palmyra High School in 1998. |
Cpl. Dominique J. Nicolas, USMCThe Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.Cpl. Dominique J. Nicolas, 25, of Maricopa, Ariz., died May 26 from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Associated Press -- PHOENIX, Arizona -- A Marine from Maricopa was killed by hostile fire in Iraq, the military said Tuesday. Cpl. Dominique J. Nicolas, 25, was killed May 26 while on a mission in the Anbar province in Iraq. Nicolas was a combat engineer with the I Marine Expeditionary Force, which is the Marine Corps' primary warfighting organization. Nicolas, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton, joined the Marines in August 2001. He has been awarded the Combat Action Ribbon, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. President Bush awarded the I Expeditionary Force with a Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in action against an armed enemy for its involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom from March 21 to April 2003. In that period, MEF conducted the longest sequence of overland attacks in the history of the Marine Corps. Camp Pendleton officials declined Tuesday to provide additional information on Nicholas. |
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