Marine 1st Lt. Joshua M. Palmer

Died April 8, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Banning, Calif.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed April 8 by hostile fire in Anbar province, Iraq.

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First Lt. Joshua M. Palmer sent an e-mail home asking for candy, not for himself but for Iraqi children. "He said he liked to see them happy, and they loved the Americans," said his mother, Jackie Palmer. Palmer, 25, of Banning, Calif., died April 8 in a hostile attack. Palmer enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves when he was 17 and worked three summers at his mother's restaurant, The Farmhouse. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from the University of San Diego and graduated last year from officer training at Quantico, Va. He had told his mother that he'd be home by summer, but she recently learned he was trying to extend his stay. "He wasn't going to leave until it was cleaned up," she said.

— Associated Press