Marine Cpl. Richard P. Schoener

Died May 8, 2005 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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21, of Hayes, La.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; killed May 8 while conducting combat operations in Alishang, Afghanistan.

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Marine from La. killed in Afghanistan

Associated Press

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A 21-year-old Marine from the small southwestern Louisiana town of Hayes was one of two soldiers killed by insurgents during a five-hour battle in Afghanistan.

Ricky Schoener’s step-grandmother said his family had just returned home from a camping trip Sunday evening when three men in uniform showed up at their door.

“We saw them and we just knew,” Norma Breaux said. “We just knew.”

Schoener graduated with honors from Bell City High in 2001 and principal Reinette Guillory said his loss is a “great blow” to the community.

“He had lot of ambition and goals,” Guillory said. “He definitely was an asset to our community and would have come back as a leader of our community.”

The battle in Afghanistan was the latest in a string of conflicts that the military said has resulted in heavy losses for militants who have intensified attacks since winter snows melted.

Sunday’s battle began when a Marine unit checked on a tip about insurgents operating in Laghman, an opium-producing area 60 miles east of the capital, Kabul. Insurgents opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades and then split into two groups, one of which fled to a village and the other to a cave on a nearby ridge, the statement said.

Air Force A-10 aircraft engaged the insurgents in the cave and a squad of Marines went in afterwards to assess the situation, a U.S. statement said. Schoener and another Marine were killed while clearing the cave area.