Tonight we are honoring the lives and sacrifices of three young Marines who lost their lives in Afghanistan late last week. They are Sgt. Ryan Lane of Pennsylvania, Cpl. Nicholas Xiarhos of Massachusetts, and Lance Cpl. Jeremy Lasher of New York State. They are the three most recent of the 677 Americans who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and the surrounding regions since 2001.
Please follow me below the fold to learn more about these lives of these three brave young men who were willing to sacrifice their lives for our country.
On Friday, the Department of Defense made the following announcement:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Sgt. Ryan H. Lane, 25, of Pittsburgh, Pa., died July 23 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Sgt. Lane joined the Marines in 2002, right after his graduation from Keystone Oaks High School. He was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan at the time of his death. His father, Harold Lane, was the former Chief of Police in Castle Shannon, PA.
A family friend, Shirley McGonagle described Sgt. Lane as follows:
He's my hero....He always wanted to be a Marine. He just wanted to serve his country.
She went on to say that:
All I can see when I think of him in combat is him being the first one going ahead....He won all these medals with the Marines, but he never wanted to talk about that or what he was doing over there. ... He's a hero. He's our hero.
Ryan Lane was the youngest of four brothers. He married his wife, Valerie, two years ago, and they lived at Camp Lejeune in NC.
The mayor of Castle Shannon, Donald Baumgartner, said:
It's a terrible blow....Our hearts go out to the family.
On Friday, the flags in front of the borough offices in Castle Shannon were flown at half-mast in Sgt. Lane's honor.
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On Friday, the Department of Defense also released the following statement:
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Lasher, 27, of Oneida, N.Y., and Cpl. Nicholas G. Xiarhos, 21, of Yarmouth Port, Mass., died July 23 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Lance Cpl. Jeremy Lasher is the 10th servicemember of New York's Mohawk Valley to have been killed in action since 2003. His brother, Ryan, is also an active-duty member of the military, and Ryan accompanied Jeremy's remains home to Dover AFB.
~photo source
Lance Cpl. Lasher's mother and step-father, Vicky and Scott Arnold, were at Dover Air Force Base to meet the plane and to watch the transferral of the casket.
The mayor of Oneida, NY, Peter Hegldon, had stopped by the Arnold's home on Friday as they were preparing to leave for Dover.
“Ms. Arnold said that with two sons in the service that she had thought about this possibility,” he said.
And though Arnold was “terribly upset” when Hedglon met with her Friday afternoon, they discussed the minutiae of planning for the funeral of a serviceman that will draw hundreds.
It's not something this community has had to do for at least 30 years, the mayor said.
“We will do everything we can do to hold his family in our hearts,” he said.
~source
Funeral arrangements for Jeremy Lasher are incomplete at this time.
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Cpl. Nicholas Xiarhos had left for a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan on May 15th. He had already served a tour of duty in Iraq, where he survived a close call from an attack by a suicide bomber. He returned from his deployment in Iraq last Thanksgiving.
Nicholas had joined the Marines after high school graduation in 2006. He was a graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in MA. Like Ryan Lane, Xiarhos is also the son of a police officer. His father, Steven, is a Lieutenant in the Yarmouth police force.
On learning of Nicholas' death, the police department issued the following statement:
"We watched him grow up. Many officers on the Yarmouth Police Department watched their whole family grow up. ... All of us feel we've lost a member of our family," said Chief Michael Almonte.
~source
Xiarhos was also honored by Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick:
"Obviously, a huge loss for his family and for all of us," Patrick said after an appearance at the Fine Arts Work Center. "I sure do respect the service and the sacrifice that these young people offer to all of us to put themselves in harms way for the rest of us."
~source
A scholarship fund has been established in Xiarhos' name by the Yarmouth Police Relief Association. In addition to his father and mother, Nicholas Xiarhos is survived by his brother, Alex, and his twin sisters, Elizabeth and Ashlynne.
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May Nicholas, Jeremy, and Ryan rest in eternal peace and may we always honor their bravery and their sacrifice for our country. Since World War I, poppies have been the universal symbols of remembrance.
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It is also worth noting here that Harry Patch, the last British veteran of World War I, passed away on Saturday. There are only three remaining veterans of the First World War, an American, Frank Buckles, a Canadian, and an Australian. There were only three British veterans remaining last year on Remembrance Day, the 90th anniversary of the end of WWI. All are now gone. Harry Patch is the last known veteran of the trenches. He was wounded at the Battle of Ypres, but he did not begin to talk about his war experiences until he reached the age of 100.
Here is the most famous of the World War I poems, in honor of Nicholas, Ryan, and Jeremy, and of Harry Patch:
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Sixty million people were involved in World War I, and over 9 million lost their lives. May they all rest in peace.
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About "I Got the News Today" (IGTNT)
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories.