Marine Lance Cpl. Jason C. Redifer

Died January 31, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Stuarts Draft, Va.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Jan. 31 by enemy action in Babil province, Iraq.

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Virginia Marine killed in Iraq laid to rest

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va. — A Marine from Virginia killed in hostile fighting in Iraq nine days before he was to come home was laid to rest in Arlington National Ceremony.

Dozens of family members and friends and two busloads of people from Stuarts Draft attended the Tuesday burial. Lance Cpl. Jason C. Redifer, 19, was described as an old-fashioned patriot who went to war rather than join the White House honor guard because he didn’t want another child’s parent to have to go to war in his place.

Redifer was killed along with Lance Cpl. Harry R. Swain IV, 21, of Cumberland, N.J., and Cpl. Christopher E. Zimny, 27, of Illinois, in Iraq’s Babil province on Feb. 1.

Redifer’s parents said the sharpshooter was proud to be a Marine and said he didn’t know if the war would make a difference in Iraq, but “you’ve always got to believe that it can and keep fighting the good fight,” his mother, Rhonda Winfield, said.

Redifer became the 114th service member killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.