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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew J. Kilpela
Died June 10, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
22, of Fowerville, Mich. ; assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed June 10 in an explosion while conducting combat operations in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. Also killed was Lance Cpl. Mario A. Castillo.
Michigan Marine dies in Iraq
Associated Press
FOWLERVILLE, Mich. — A 22-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who joined the Marine Corps to prove he could get through boot camp died after a roadside bomb went off in Iraq, his father and brother said.
Lance Cpl. Andrew Kilpela of Fowlerville was assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineering Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, and had been in Iraq since March. He’d been a Marine since 2003.
His family learned of the Friday death that night, the Lansing State Journal reported Monday.
His father, Michael Kilpela, said he used to get frustrated because he thought his son didn’t plan for the future, but his perspective has changed.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that he was a person who did not worry about tomorrow,” Michael Kilpela said. “He did not regret yesterday, and he filled every moment of today with love and with joy and with passion for life.”
Andrew Kilpela joined the Marines in 2003 “to prove it to himself and to those who kept telling him that he couldn’t do anything,” his father said.
His death came eight days before the wedding of his 25-year-old sister, Janice.
“We’re going to throw a party so where he’s at, he’s going to hear it,” his 27-year-old brother, David Kilpela of Grand Blanc Township said. “He would want us to rock the house.”
The Marine shared a July birthday with his girlfriend from Redford.
“One of the last things he wanted my parents to do was send flowers in his name on her birthday,” his brother said.
Plans for a memorial service are incomplete, but the family said it will take place in Fowlerville.
“We prayed and prayed that he would come home safe and the Lord answered our prayer,” his brother said. “He is in the most safe place anybody could be.”