Marine Cpl. Julian M. Woodall

Died May 22, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Tallahassee, Fla.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died May 22 while conducting combat operations in Zanti, Iraq. Also killed was Cpl. Benjamin D. Desilets.

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N.C.-based Marine to be remembered at graduation ceremony

The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina-based Marine who died in Iraq this week was to be remembered May 24 at his former high school’s graduation ceremony.

Cpl. Julian M. Woodall, 21, of Tallahassee, Fla., died May 22 during combat operations in Anbar province. He was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune.

Rosanne Wood, the principal of SAIL High School in Tallahassee, said Woodall transformed from a shy teen to a standout in the nontraditional school.

“He found a home at SAIL,” Wood said. “We recruited him to work in the [administrative] office. He started taking classes. He went from being a shy kid to having lots of self-confidence.”

Woodall met his future wife, Melissa, at the school. He will be remembered at the beginning of SAIL’s graduation ceremony May 24.

Wood said she kept in touch with Woodall’s family and learned May 21 that he had been sent on a second tour in Iraq.

“We got the news that he died in the middle of that night. For many of us, it’s our first person we’d known well to die in Iraq. It hit us pretty hard,” she said.

Woodall’s mother, Meredith McMackin, said she last spoke with her son on Mother’s Day. He had waited in line for an hour and a half to use the phone and stood in another line when that phone didn’t work, she said.

“It was so wonderful hearing his voice,” McMackin told the Tallahassee Democrat. “Julian was a very kind and considerate and good person.”