Marine Cpl. Joshua J. Ware

Died November 16, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Apache, Okla.; assigned to Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward); killed Nov. 16 by enemy small arms fire while conducting combat operations against enemy forces during Operation Steel Curtain in Ubaydi, Iraq.

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Hundreds attend funeral of fallen Marine corporal

The Associated Press

APACHE, Okla. — More than 350 family members and friends bid farewell to a Marine corporal who was the sunshine of his mother’s life and a source of pride for his father.

“On the darkest day, he made the sun come out and shine upon her,” the Rev. Kim Mammedaty said of Cpl. Joshua J. Ware to those gathered at Comanche Community Center on Nov. 26.

Ware and three other Marines, including another Oklahoman, were killed in a Nov. 16 ambush in Ubaydi, Iraq.

He was born at the U.S. Public Health Service Indian Hospital in Lawton and attended school at Apache as a child. He graduated from Roland High School in eastern Oklahoma, where he played football and baseball, ran track and was in the FFA.

A year before Ware, 20, graduated from high school, he signed up to be a Marine.

Retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Lanny Asepermy, a friend of the family, recalled that Ware’s father, Randy Mammedaty, would keep him informed about Ware’s career and travels when Asepermy visited the Apache Farmers Co-op.

“It would take us 30 minutes to load up two bags of feed,” Asepermy said.

Ware’s pastor, the Rev. Sharon Gomez, remembered when Ware asked her to pray for him. But more often he would ask for prayer for the sick mother of another Marine or another Marine’s sister who had just had a baby.

“He was always thinking about the others in his unit,” Gomez said. “He would never let people worry about him.”

Ware, an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe who was of Kiowa and Comanche descent, was the first Comanche or Kiowa to die in combat since 1968 during the Vietnam War.

He was laid to rest at Rainy Mountain Cemetery near Mountain View. A Marine Corps Reserve detachment from Oklahoma City provided military honors.

“Josh will always be 20 years old,” said Asepermy. “To him I say ‘Semper Fidelis and, most importantly, ‘Mission Accomplished.’

“He will go down in Kiowa and Comanche history as a fallen warrior. I hope we don’t forget who he was and what he did.”