Marine Gunnery Sgt. Christopher L. Eastman

Died July 18, 2010 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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28, of Moose Pass, Alaska; assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died July 18 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations.

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Served in Marine Corps for 10 years

Staff report

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The Defense Department said July 20 that a Marine staff noncommissioned officer was killed July 18 in Afghanistan.

Gunnery Sgt. Christopher L. Eastman, 28, of Moose Pass, Alaska, died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, the Pentagon said. He was assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. He deployed to Afghanistan in April.

A Marine Corps spokesman told the Anchorage Daily News that insurgents may have detonated an improvised explosive device while Eastman, an explosives ordnance disposal technician, was working a bomb site.

Eastman and his wife, Gaby, were expecting their second child, the newspaper reported. “He gladly put his life on the line for you day in and day out without thinking twice about it,” a family friend wrote on the Eastmans’ MySpace pages in announcing his death. “Christopher was a loving husband, father, brother and son and we will miss our brother dearly and know that he is in a better place now.”

Eastman, who enlisted in 2000, also deployed to Iraq in 2008. His military awards and decorations include the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Navy Unit Commendation and Certificate of Commendation.