Honor and Remember Cpl Matthew J. Stanley

Date of birth: Dec 26, 1983
Date of passing: Dec 16, 2006
Matt was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas

Following is written by his Mom, Lynn:

Matt was a fun loving guy. Sometimes I think Matt’s whole purpose on this earth was to make people smile. He himself always had a smile on his face. Everyone who knew Matt will tell you about that smile.

I watched Matt mature from a young boy into a brave young man. His courage and bravery still astonishes me. He had a great love for his family and his country and a great zest for life. In my attempts to honor Matt, I remember to keep his fun loving spirit alive, his joy for life and his love.

In 2002, Matt graduated from Kingswood Regional High School where he was well known and well liked by his peer and teachers. He was outgoing and deeply proud and personal about his two tours of duty in Iraq. He always had a good circle of friends.

He was the type of kid that everybody wanted for a friend Matt had been married less than a year Matt married his beautiful wife Amy on December 31, 2005. Such a wonderful time for the whole family to be together. Little did we know that Matt would be gone before his first anniversary.

He was killed along with four others by an IED when the hummer he was in ran over it. That year he missed his birthday on December 26 and his anniversary. Matt is dearly missed by his family and be everyone who knew him.

 

 

Honoring and remembering Cpl Nevin Moreira- Died 12-14-2007 died as a result of service to our country. He served 2 tours in Iraq with the Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis, WA.

Please pray for his Mom, Joanne, and his family and friends. May God be with them especially today and give them comfort, strength and precious memories of Nevin. He loved his family and friends and was always defending those who couldn’t defend themselves. Joanne recalled a time that Nevin told her about being in the midst of combat and noticing a flower — “a little symbol of hope and happiness,” as she puts it in the midst of chaos.
Never forget….to remember is to honor…

Cpl Nevin Moreira

Always remembered – LCpl Michael Geary – KIA 12-8-10. As you watch this tribute, please keep his mom-Nancy, family and friends in your prayers. May God be with them and give them comfort, especially today. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; KIA Dec. 8, 2010 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations. Michael Geary was so proud to be a Marine he wore his dress uniform to show his Pinkerton Academy English teacher after he completed training. Michael, a 20-year-old from Derry, NH, joined the Marines after he graduated from Pinkerton in 2009 and had risen to the rank of Lance Corporal.

He had started training to be a Marine when he was 14 by running and working out with his recruiters. Being a Marine “was just something he really wanted to do,” his uncle Michael said. Michael had been in Afghanistan since August and was due to come home in January. He had other chances at leave but passed them up to help buddies with families. “If he had leave, he passed it up to someone who was married and had children.” He was serving his first tour in Afghanistan. He planned to become a police officer or border patrolman when he got out of the service. He told teachers when he was accepted into the Marines it fulfilled a lifelong ambition, Pinkerton spokesman Robin Perrin said. Several teachers remembered him as a quiet man who deeply loved his country. Michael’s English teacher, Joseph Dion, issued a statement about his former student, recalling the day Michael told him he had been accepted into the Marines. “He was standing tall, proud of his decision to become a Marine,” Dion wrote. “Right from the start I liked having Mike as a student. He was genuinely interested in learning; he asked honest questions with a real desire to know the truth. When he made the decision to join the Marines, it was clear he had made a decision that would help him achieve a goal he truly believed in.”

 

 

Joyce Bertolino  and family with their Honor and Remember flag for her son, Marine PFC Matthew L. Bertolino.

Presented Nov. 11, 2013 by Gold Star Families Jim and Lynn Savage and Jean Durgin

 Marine PFC Matthew L. Bertolino – 09-February- 2006 – Afghanistan

Remembering LCpl Ryan McCaughn – KIA on 11/7/06 while conducting combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. Ryan, 19, was less than two months into his deployment.

Ryan was born in Jacksonville N.C., the home of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. He spent his early years in North Carolina and Missouri and ultimately settled in Manchester, New Hampshire. There he was raised by his mother Nicole and his stepfather Raymond. Even as a child, friends said that Ryan was clear in his military ambitions. Both of his parents were former servicemen; his mother served briefly in the U.S. Army and his father, Thomas McCaughn was a Marine. His older brother Chris served in the Air Force and his brother Sean Merlin served in the Navy.

Friends described Ryan as an irrepressible comedian who used to torment his school bus driver and sometimes splashed around in puddles just for laughs. He performed on stage with Maskers, his high-school drama club, and wasn’t afraid to dress up as a woman if the part demanded it.

As a high schooler, Ryan took culinary classes at the Manchester School of Technology. He and his friends, Kyle Schmidt and Greg Lake, talked of one day opening a restaurant and bar. Ryan, they said, was going to take business classes so he could be the manager.

Mostly, though, friends and relatives said Ryan spoke of joining the military and, later, becoming a police officer. He worked extra hard during his senior year to complete the requirements necessary for enrolling in the Marines, at one point taking three English classes in a single semester.

At 17, he asked his mother to help him sign up for duty. “He said he was going to sign up anyway when he was 18,” Schmidt said, “but he would feel better if it was with her consent.” He left for boot camp at Parris Island one week after graduating in June 2005 and was then stationed in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Although he wasn’t allowed to divulge most details of his mission, friends and family members said they knew he was living in Ramadi, the southwestern point of the Sunni Triangle and that he patrolled the region with a grenade launcher and M16 rifle. “He said he needed to do this” his mother recalled. “He said if he could keep one dad from going to Iraq and he could take his place instead, then he’ll feel like he’s accomplished something.”

Ryan occasionally returned to Central High School after graduating. Once, he came to talk to students about life in the Marines. Later, he came as a recruiter.

Ryan is remembered fondly for his sense of humor and serious commitment to the Marines and to his country. His creative writing teacher in high school shared a poem that Ryan had written entitled “Solider”

Soldier

“Many soldiers have had to experience the ultimate Sacrifice”
“Even in death, a soldier will show Pride.
All you can do is hope that they finally found Peace.”

Fellow soldier and friend Cpt Brian Krenzeli was in boot camp with Ryan and “considered his a great friend. He was one the guys there that really made the time go by faster especially with his humor. I don’t thinks there was a single day we spent on Parris Island that he didn’t get me quarter decked for laughing. He was an outstanding Marine and a great friend and he will be missed.”