Marine Cpl. David M. Vicente

Died March 19, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

25, of Methuen, Mass.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.; killed in action March 19 near Hit, Iraq.

* * * * *

When other youngsters were wearing T-shirts and jeans, David M. Vicente was wearing fatigues and combat boots. "We all wore combat stuff when we were little kids but he kept it up through high school," said his best friend, Jason Lenotte in Vicente's hometown of Methuen, Mass. "He was so excited when he got in the Marines and he talked about staying in the service as his career."

Cpl. Vicente, 25, died March 19 when the Humvee in which he was riding hit a landmine just outside Hit, Iraq. He had been in Iraq for two weeks, and was based at Twentynine Palms, Calif. His brother Daniel Vicente said the family had worried about Vicente, "but I knew in my heart this is exactly what he wanted to being doing." His uncle Michael Marques said as a teenager, when his nephew was not dreaming of a career in the military, Vicente was working on his truck. "He loved everything mechanical," Marques said. "He took his truck apart piece by piece, which I thought was going to be the end of it. But it was that truck he drove across the country to report for duty." Vicente also is survived by his parents.

— Associated Press