1st Battalion

The Marine Corps released the identities Wednesday night of the seven Marines who died this week when a mortar shell exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.  Those killed were Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, of Clearfield, Pa.; Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, of Polk City, Fla.; Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, of Fairfield, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, of Marietta, Ohio; Lance Cpl. Mason J....

The Marine Corps released the identities Wednesday night of the seven Marines who died this week when a mortar shell exploded during a live-fire training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada.  Those killed were Pfc. Joshua M. Martino, 19, of Clearfield, Pa.; Lance Cpl. David P. Fenn II, 20, of Polk City, Fla.; Lance Cpl. Roger W. Muchnick Jr., 23, of Fairfield, Conn.; Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Taylor, 21, of Marietta, Ohio; Lance Cpl. Mason J....

The young marine lighted a cigarette and let it dangle. White smoke wafted around his helmet. His face was smeared with war paint. Blood trickled from his right ear and the bridge of his nose. Momentarily deafened by cannon blasts, he didn't know the shooting had stopped. He stared at the sunrise. His expression caught my eye. To me, it said: terrified, exhausted and glad just to be alive. I recognized that look because that's how I felt too. I raised my camera and snapped a few shots.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- The rain and cold were appropriate. "Somber weather for a somber occasion," the battalion commander said. It was a tearful morning of remembrance and mourning Friday as hundreds of Marines and family members paid tribute to 17 Marines from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment killed in a recently completed deployment to the Sangin region of Afghanistan. To listen to comments by Marines about the fallen was to learn of the shared dangers of the fight in Sangin, long a Taliban stronghold.

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, or who died at a U.S. military hospital of their injuries: Justin B. Allen, 23, of Coal Grove, Ohio; sergeant, Army. Allen was shot and killed July 18 during a firefight in the Zhari district of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, on the Pakistani border. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Justus S. Bartelt, 27, of Polo, Ill.; staff sergeant, Marine Corps.

Army Spc. Tracy L. Laramore, 30, of Okaloosa, Fla., died Wednesday in Baji, Iraq, of injuries suffered when a Bradley fighting vehicle went over an embankment and flipped into a river, the Pentagon announced Thursday. Laramore was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, in Schweinfurt, Germany. His death brought to 570 the number of U.S. troops and civilian coalition employees killed in Iraq.

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Iraq: Lerando J. Brown, 27, of Gulfport, Miss.; specialist, Army National Guard. Brown was found dead March 15 of a gunshot to the chest in Balad, north of Baghdad, in what was termed a nonhostile incident that is under investigation. He was assigned to the 288th Sapper Company, 223rd Engineer Battalion, Mississippi Army National Guard in Houston, Miss. -- Michael D. Elledge, 41, of Brownsburg, Ind.; staff sergeant, Army.

The Defense Department last week identified the following American military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, or who died at a U.S. military hospital of their injuries: Justin B. Allen, 23, of Coal Grove, Ohio; sergeant, Army. Allen was shot and killed July 18 during a firefight in the Zhari district of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, on the Pakistani border. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Justus S. Bartelt, 27, of Polo, Ill.; staff sergeant, Marine Corps.