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Christopher Leon, A Local Marine, Killed in Iraq

by DJ Saturday, Jun. 24, 2006 at 10:37 PM

A 20-year-old Marine from Lancaster has been killed in Iraq, becoming the third young Antelope Valley man to die there since the 2003 invasion. Cpl. Christopher Leon, a 2004 Lancaster High School graduate, died Tuesday from wounds suffered in combat, Marine officials said.

Christopher Leon, A ...
da-sd-03-15110.jpg, image/jpeg, 429x292

Local Marine killed in combat in Iraq conflict

Military releases no details in death of Christopher Leon

BY CHARLES F. BOSTWICK, Staff Writer
LA Daily News

LANCASTER - A 20-year-old Marine from Lancaster has been killed in Iraq, becoming the third young Antelope Valley man to die there since the 2003 invasion.

Cpl. Christopher Leon, a 2004 Lancaster High School graduate, died Tuesday from wounds suffered in combat, Marine officials said.

In keeping with Marine Corps policy, officials did not specify how or when Leon was wounded other than to say it happened in Iraq's western al-Anbar province, which contains the Sunni Triangle insurgency hot spots of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Leon had been serving with the 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, based in Okinawa, a unit that directs aircraft and artillery gunfire against enemy targets.

Leon was remembered as a quiet, dependable, helpful teen at his school and at the pet store where he worked stocking shelves during high school and after graduation until he joined the Marines.

"He was a real nice guy, with a big smile," said Rosie Paez, Lancaster High School's receptionist.

Leon had worked about a year and a half at the Lancaster PetSmart store, quitting when he enlisted in the Marines, who have a recruiting office next door.

"I think he said he'd always wanted to join," said Laura Adkins, a PetSmart manager.

Adkins remembered Leon as a hard-working and dependable employee, who always helped customers carry purchases out to their cars.

"He was a really good associate," Adkins said.

Leon's mother had come into the store two or three weeks ago and told Adkins she was looking forward to her son's return from Iraq, Adkins said.

Leon was the third Marine from the Antelope Valley to die in Iraq, all in Al-Anbar province.

Staff Sgt. Allan Walker, a 28-year-old Highland High School alumnus, died leading an infantry unit in Ramadi in April 2004.

Walker was one of a dozen Marines killed in combat in the area that day. Walker had been with a unit sent in to aid other Marines who had been ambushed.

Walker, who was single and had no children, had been a Marine for nearly 10 years. He spent the last two years as a drill instructor, training recruits, before he transferred to a combat unit three months before he was killed.

Cpl. Ian Stewart, a 2001 Quartz Hill High School graduate whose father is executive director of a Christian camp and conference center in Lake Hughes, died in a December 2004 gunbattle.

Stewart grew up in Lake Hughes and attended Hughes Elizabeth Lakes Union School before going to Quartz Hill High. The middle one of three children, he helped with landscaping and groundskeeping work at The Oaks Conference and Retreat Center, where his family lived.

chuck.bostwick@dailynews.com

(661) 267-5742

Copyright © 2006 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
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Marine Corps News Article

by DJ Sunday, Jun. 25, 2006 at 9:04 AM

Marine Corps News Ar...
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NOTE: THERE ARE MORE PICTURES AT THE STORY LINK

Fallen Lancaster, Calif., Marine honored at Camp Ramadi
June 24, 2006; Submitted on: 06/24/2006 01:31:32 PM ; Story ID#: 2006624133132

By Cpl. Daniel J. Redding, 1st Marine Logistics Group

PHOTO CAPTION: Service members gathered to mourn Cpl. Christopher D. Leon at Camp Ramadi June 23, 2006. Leon, a radio operator with 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, was killed June 20, 2006, while conducting operations in the city of Ramadi. The Lancaster, Calif., native was remembered as a friendly, open-hearted individual who was a “Marine’s Marine” within his unit.

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq (June 24, 2006) -- A friendly and open-hearted figure in life, Cpl. Christopher D. Leon was honored here June 23 by hundreds of fellow service members, many with personal memories of the 20-year-old Lancaster, Calif., native.

Leon was wounded when his team came under attack while conducting combat operations in Ramadi, one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq. He died from his wounds June 20.

The memorial service was attended by service members from multiple units based here, including Leon's unit, 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, based out of Camp LeJeune, N.C., and the Army's 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

Leon was a radio operator attached to 2nd ANGLICO, serving as an augment from his home unit 5th ANGLICO in Okinawa, Japan.

During the service, Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher D. Lunsford, Leon's corpsman, read several letters on behalf of those who knew him best.

"Right now, I'm upset that they took away a part of my family," one letter read. "What I really want now is to have you back, but I know that won't happen."

Another letter read, "If you were still here today, I'd make a bet ... that I'd change my ways and become a better man because of what you taught me. Life is too short to wait until tomorrow. I'll never forget you."

Capt. Adam W. Blanton, the firepower control team leader for 2nd ANGLICO, was in charge of Leon for the last 11 months. He remembered his fallen warrior as the consummate professional, an example for all his fellow Marines.

"Corporal Leon was everything I could have asked for in a Marine. (He was) the quiet professional, who would do his job without complaint and do it well," said Blanton, a 27-year-old native of Riverside, Calif. "He was a Marine other Marines strive to become."

"He was an approachable individual with a good head on his shoulders and wisdom beyond his years," Blanton said. "He was our friend. He was the buddy that laughed with us, sweated with us, and walked every piece of dirt we walked, but with a heavier pack and a smile on his face."

The ceremony featured a musical tribute to Leon and a ceremonial rifle salute. After the ceremony, the audience - many of whom stood through the service due to the large number in attendance - all paid their individual respects to their friend and fellow service member.

"There is now a hole in our lives," Blanton said.

Leon's awards include the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

Email Cpl. Redding at daniel.redding@cssemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil.
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AV Press Article

by DJ Monday, Jun. 26, 2006 at 7:35 PM

Marine mom: 'He was my heart'

Leon's father recalls son's valor, nobility

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Sunday, June 25, 2006.
By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press Editor

LANCASTER - Like so many young people, Cpl. Christopher David Leon communicated online, and the motto on his personal Web site was "Our sacrifice is your comfort."
Leon, a 2004 Lancaster High School graduate and a Marine detailed to a highly trained special duty unit, was fiercely proud of the hazardous duty he performed in combat.

He couldn't understand why so many people his age seemed only faintly interested in defense of their country at a time in history with terrorists vowing to kill as many Americans as possible.

In that, he was like many Marines and serving military.

"It irritated him, and I just would tell him, 'People have to live their lives,' "said his mother, Kathi Leon.

This week Leon's life was taken while fighting terrorists, often referred to as insurgents, in Anbar Province, the main battleground for coalition troops in Iraq. He was 20.

The young noncommissioned officer made rank quickly, obtaining his corporal's stripes before two years in service. That may well have been because of the unit he volunteered to serve with, ANGLICO, the Air Naval Gun Liaison Company. It's the kind of special duty that Marines call "hard core" and "high speed."

In addition to performing as infantry in the assault, ANGLICO Marines coordinate artillery, naval artillery and air strikes, usually from a far-forward position.

It was during such an operation on June 20, on the afternoon of a typically hot day in western Iraq, that Leon was hit while operating as a radio chief on a rooftop.

The gunman's bullet struck one of the few areas of anatomy not shielded by the 80 pounds of body armor and gear the Marines carry. One of those uncovered areas is part of the head not shielded by Kevlar helmet or armored neck shield.

He died, his mother said, "doing work that he wanted to do," which was the protection of comrades in arms and innocent Iraqis.

On Mother's Day, his mother Kathi got flowers.

This past Sunday was Father's Day. His father, Jim Leon, observed sadly that the beautiful Father's Day card he received in the mail arrived after his son's death.

The corporal communicated steadily with his parents and his fiancée, Aimey Vaccaro. The two were planning to wed in December. The young couple communicated almost daily, and his parents heard from him a couple of times a week.

"He showered great wealth on us," his father said, reminiscing about his son in the living room of the family's west Lancaster home. "He was a warrior. He believed in that."

His father added, "There were qualities embedded in him, qualities of valor and nobility."

The young man also believed in God and told his mother he was on speaking terms with his savior, she related, laughing at the memory.

"I had said, 'I want you to know the Lord.' And he said, 'When I go, I know where I'm going. We're on a first-name basis, Mom. I call him 'Jesus,' and he calls me 'Chris.' "

Marines can be stoic to the point of being tight-lipped, but Leon was not that way in communicating his affection and respect for his parents.

E-mails that he sent from Iraq made plain his feelings to mother and father.

"I want to tell you how much I appreciate the attributes you gave to me, to make me a man able to defend my country," the corporal wrote, adding his gratitude to both for the "faith, morals and belief" they shared with him.

"He was my heart," Kathi Leon said.

To his father, who served as an Army medic during the Cold War, he wrote, "How thankful I am for having such a great man and father in my life. I couldn't ask for a better father."

Leon switched from Paraclete High School and overcame adversity that some young people can create for themselves during the angst and confusion of adolescence. He graduated from Lancaster High School on independent study and found his calling in the Marine Corps' delayed enlistment program.

"He joked, he called it a $38,000 scholarship, but he learned all his discipline in the Marine Corps," his mother said.

In the rigors of boot camp on a war footing, Leon overcame more challenges when he broke his foot. A bone broke, a stress fracture that occurred during the 40 miles and 52 hours of the Marine Corps "make or break" exam called "The Crucible." He finished 10 miles of hiking and more miles of running with a broken foot.

"He had high tolerance for pain and great determination," his mother said.

The injury set him back, and he spent a frustrating five weeks in a medical rehabilitation platoon. Such setbacks hit a raw nerve for recruit Marines because they have to graduate in a different training cycle with recruits who are not the ones with whom they began boot camp.

Entering advanced training and the "fleet" force of deployable Marines, Leon's determination showed in his acceptance to ANGLICO, one of the Corps' storied special task fighting units. He also prided himself on obtaining a coveted Marine Corps Martial Arts Program green belt, signifying additional hand-to-hand combat training acquired after boot camp.

His outfit deployed on Feb. 20, 2006, into Iraq and was due to finish its combat tour in September.

His unit was headquartered in Ramadi at a base run by the Army, and he told his parents recently that along with his Marines they were moving into "the worst" part of a city notorious for being infested with fighters ranging from local anti-coalition forces to the foreign terrorist ranks loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by U.S. forces on June 7.

In that part of Iraq, Leon told his parents, "You can feel the evil," his mother said.

Because of Cpl. Leon's affection for the children of Iraq, that insight was foreboding.

His father noted his son's mystification at the psychological and moral makeup of guerrillas willing to use explosive devices close enough to blow the windows out of a nearby school for girls.

"He asked, 'How could they do such a thing? With children getting out from school,' " his father said.

The Marine kept a journal and took photographs, intending that someday, with his intended, he would work on a book with a tentative title like "Love and War," his mother said.

His mother carefully arranged an assortment of photos on a coffee table. One was from boot camp, standing, smiling confidently, next to mother and dad. Others showed him in body armor, and yet another snapshot showed him smiling brightly, hugging a niece.

"He was beautiful," his mother said.

Plans for memorial services were incomplete, pending arrangements for selection of burial site and full military honors.

danderson@avpress.com

© 2006 Antelope Valley Press
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