Marine Lance Cpl. Bruce E. Ferrell

Died August 10, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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21, of Perdido, Ala.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died Aug. 10 while supporting combat operations in Garmsir, Afghanistan.

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Alabama Marine on 1st deployment dies in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

MOBILE — A 21-year-old Marine from Perdido in north Baldwin County was killed in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb exploded during a routine foot patrol near Kandahar, family members said.

Lance Cpl. Bruce “Bubba” Ferrell Jr. was reported killed Sunday after stepping on an explosive.

Bruce Ferrell Sr. told the Press-Register that his son had recently become a Marine and began his first deployment in May.

He said the family last heard from him Saturday.

“We got to talk to him for 10 or 15 minutes, and we feel very lucky about that, because it happened the next evening,” Bruce Ferrell Sr. said.

Bubba Ferrell’s older sister, Danielle Denise Whatley, died in a car accident in 2006.

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Hundreds remember fallen Marine

The Associated Press

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — A Marine who was killed in Afghanistan is being remembered in south Alabama.

A funeral was set for Monday for Marine Lance Cpl. Bruce Earnest “Bubba” Ferrell Jr. of Perdido. The 21-year-old Marine was killed by an improvised explosive while on patrol in Afghanistan on Aug. 10.

On Aug. 16, crowds of people with American flags and signs turned out in Bay Minette to remember Ferrell as a hearse carrying his body rolled through town.

Ferrell graduated from Baldwin County High School in 2006 and joined the Marines the next year. He had been in Afghanistan since May.