DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
The Department of Defense announced Friday the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Marquis R. Porter, 28, of Brighton, Mass., died Jan. 11 as a result of a non-hostile incident in Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
The cause of death is still under investigation.
On the day that our country has set aside to celebrate the life and honor the ultimate sacrifice of Martin Luther King, we are here now to remember Sgt. Marquis R. Porter, who would have turned 29 on January 16.
Sgt. Marquis R. Porter
William Jackson, one of Porter’s four older siblings told the Boston Herald, “ He was a very friendly....loving person and a nice guy who did anything for anyone. His dream was to be a Marine.”
Sgt. Porter grew up in the Fidelis Way projects of Brighton, MA according to the Herald. He graduated from the private college preparatory Beaver Country Day School and joined the Marines in 1998. He had already served two tours in Iraq and in Japan at the time of his death.
“We were real close,” Jackson said of his brother. “I raised him. We played basketball and went to the arcades, but he was really into his books, an educated individual with a question for everything, looking for the right answers. He graduated one day and enlisted the next. It was a dream that the kid had, something he wanted to do and would’ve done it for 20 more years if he could’ve,” he added.
Sarah Young, of Boston, left the following memorial on the Legacy Page of the Boston Globe:
I went to BCDS with Marquis, he was smart, funny and sweet. I only have good memories of him. I hope his family knows that there are many people who remember him and honor his memory and sacrafice. He was a truly good man. He will live on in our memories of him. God bless his family.
Sgt. Porter is survived by his wife and three daughters aged 5, 4 and 2 in California, where he will be laid to rest this week.
Rest in peace, Sgt. Porter.
I Got the News Today (IGTNT) 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.
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