Marine Cpl. Steven A. Rintamaki

Died September 16, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Lynnwood, Wash.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed Sept 16 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Marine from Lynnwood killed in Iraq

Associated Press

SEATTLE — A Marine from Lynnwood, Wash., has been killed in action in Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense said Sept. 18.

Marine Cpl. Steven A. Rintamaki, 21, died Sept. 16 in action in Anbar province, the military said.

He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Lynnwood is a suburban city north of Seattle and south of Everett, Wash.

Rintamaki had been in Iraq for three months, KING-TV News in Seattle reported Saturday night.

His adoptive mother, Mira Rintamaki, came home Sept. 16 to find two Marines at her door to notify her of the death.

“They don’t have to say a word,” she told KING-TV News. “It’s understood. Two Marine officers at your door is not good news.”

Rintamaki was adopted into the family as a child and had recently reunited with his birth parents before leaving for the war, KING-TV reported.

In a letter written the day before he died, Rintamaki told his youngest sister that he had grown into the man he wanted to be and was at peace with himself.

“He’s my brother, you know . . . like a father figure to me, big brother, being protective and stuff,” Tiarra Rintamaki told KING-TV.

As of Friday, 1,027 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.

Of those, 777 died as a result of hostile action and 250 died of non-hostile causes. The figures include three military civilians. The department did not provide an update Sept. 18.