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Marine Cpl. Rudy Salas
Died May 20, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
20, of Baldwin Park, Calif.; assigned to 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed May 20 in a non-combat-related vehicle accident in Anbar province.
The eldest of five children, Rudy Salas loved to run and would sprint home before he could be picked up from school. Maybe it was an early form of basic training, since he always wanted to be a Marine. "Since he was little, he liked the Marines," said his mother, Elida Salas. His brother Sammy said Salas "always tried to influence me to go into the military." Cpl. Salas, 20, of San Bernardino, Calif., joined the Marine Corps in 2001 after high school and was based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He was killed May 20 in a vehicle accident in Iraq’s Anbar province. "He died a hero," his mother said. Other survivors include his father, Rodolfo Salas.
— Associated Press