Marine Cpl. Adam T. McKiski

Died August 7, 2008 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Cherry Valley, Ill.; assigned to the 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died Aug. 7 while supporting combat operations in Karmah, Iraq. Also killed was Cpl. Stewart S. Trejo.

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Three enlisted Marines killed in Iraq

Staff report

Three enlisted Marines were killed in Iraq’s Anbar province during a four-day span in mid-August.

Sgt. Michael Ferschke Jr., 22, died from wounds suffered during a house-to-house search Aug. 10 in Salah ad Din province, according to media and Defense Department reports. Cpl. Adam T. McKiski, 21, and Cpl. Stewart S. Trejo, 25, died Aug. 7 in a vehicle accident outside Fallujah, Marine officials said.

Ferschke, who had family ties in Rhode Island and eastern Tennessee, was a radio operator with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion at Camp Butler, Okinawa, according to the Providence (R.I.) Journal. McKiski, of Cherry Valley, Ill., and Trejo, of Whitefish, Mont., were artillery technicians with 1st Maintenance Battalion, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Born in Woonsocket, R.I., Ferschke moved south with his family at age 9, the Journal reported. A 2003 graduate of Maryville High School, just south of Knoxville, Tenn., he was an honor student with a penchant for BMX bikes and skateboards. He joined the Corps later that year.

“He said school hadn’t been a hard enough challenge,” family friend Douglas Cooper told the Journal. “He thought the Marines were.”

Ferschke spent time at Camp Lejeune, N.C., before shipping out to Camp Butler, the Journal reported. His wife, a native Okinawan whom he married only a month ago, is five months pregnant with the couple’s son.

McKiski died just two days after his second wedding anniversary, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. He was married to his high school sweetheart.

At Jefferson High School in Rockford, Ill., about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, McKiski was known for his ability to quickly troubleshoot computer problems. He was everyone’s best friend in Barbara Erickson’s journalism lab, his former teacher told the Tribune, “especially at deadline time.”

That magnanimous energy followed him to the Corps in October 2004, and other Marines were easily drawn to him.

“Adam was the guy everyone wanted to be around because of his attitude,” Lance Cpl. Josh Alston told the Rockford Register Star.

Trejo, who enlisted in November 2005, leaves a wife and two children, according to a report in his hometown paper, the Whitefish Pilot. He moved to northwestern Montana from Arizona about eight years ago.

His unit was due back at Pendleton in September, the Pilot reported.

Trejo and his wife intended to renew their wedding vows at Disneyland.