Marine Lance Cpl. Gary F. VanLeuven

Died April 17, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Klamath Falls, Ore.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Twentynine Palms, Calif.; killed April 17 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Marine killed in Iraq remembered as hero

By Jeff Barnard

Associated Press

COOS BAY, Ore. — Lamenting the death of another Oregon soldier in Iraq, Gov. Ted Kulongoski on April 28 told grieving family and friends of Marine Lance Cpl. Gary Van Leuven that Americans can disagree over the war, but not the heroism of those who fight for freedom.

“We will continue to debate the merits of this war,” Kulongoski told the some 300 people who attended the funeral. “That is democracy. That is what free people do. But Marine Lance Cpl. Gary Van Leuven fought for freedom and died a hero. He did not, however, die in vain. His life had meaning and purpose and real staying power.”

Serving his second tour of duty in Iraq and already awarded a Purple Heart for a wound, Van Leuven, 20, was killed by a sniper’s bullet April 17 while fighting with the 1st Marine Division’s 3rd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was among 115 Americans who have died this month in stepped-up fighting in Iraq.

A young man who loved buying clothes and listening to hip-hop and country music turned up loud in his pickup truck, Van Leuven had hoped to start a family with his fianc©e, Jacqueline R. Trujillo of Chino Hills, Calif., said the Rev. Don Berney, who lived around the corner from Van Leuven when he was a boy.

“Family present, past and future pay the price of the ultimate sacrifice and so we weep,” Berney said.

Van Leuven moved to Klamath Falls at the age of 6, and went on to play baseball, football and throw the javelin at Mazama High School before joining the Marine Corps, Berney said. Stationed at Twentynine Palms, Calif., he had spoken of becoming a teacher.

Photo collages displayed in the funeral home lobby showed him as a young child in a Halloween costume, a Little League baseball player, and wearing a Marine Corps cap with Trujillo.

“He went to war not to take a life but to give a generation of Iraqis a new life,” Kulongoski said. “I say Lance Cpl. Gary Van Leuven was the best this state and this nation had to give.”

Kulongoski, who has attended the funerals of every Oregonian killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, recalled praying just a couple weeks ago that the soldier’s funeral he attended that day would be his last.

“I cannot say why God does not always answer our call,” said Kulongoski, himself a former Marine corporal. “There is another kind of call I do understand. That is the call to duty, honor and love of country. It is that call that Gary answered.

“Gary Van Leuven was a brave, tough, standup Marine who fought with courage, looked out for his buddies and understood and lived the phrase, band of brothers.”

Noting that few of the soldiers killed in Iraq have received the attention that came with the death in Afghanistan of former NFL football player Pat Tillman, Kulongoski read the names of Oregon’s 11 dead.

After the eulogies, the song “American Soldier,” was played, and Van Leuven’s mother, Christine Dybevik, and fianc©, sitting next to each other, mouthed the words: “I don’t want to die for you, but if dying’s asked of me, I’ll bear that cross with honor so America is free. I’m an American soldier.”

When the song, “There You’ll Be,” played, Trujillo mouthed the words, “I simply wish for one more day with you.”

At the cemetery, a Marine honor guard fired a 21-gun salute and a Marine bugler played Taps over the silver casket. After fighting a strong wind to carefully fold two American flags, Marines presented them to Van Leuven’s mother and father, Todd Van Leuven of Klamath Falls. Then Kulongoski and Oregon National Guard Gen. Ray Byrne presented them with Oregon flags.

Mrs. Dybevik, her face tight with grief, clutched the flags to her breast and laid her cheek on them, while her husband, Richard Dybevik, clutched her arm.

— Associated Press

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Oregon Marine killed in Iraq

PORTLAND, Ore. — A 20-year-old Marine from Klamath Falls was killed in action in Iraq this weekend, one month after he was awarded a Purple Heart, his family confirmed Monday.

Lance Cpl. Gary Van Leuven was on his second tour of duty with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, said his mother, Christine Dybevik. He earned a Purple Heart last month, 31 days before he would be killed in an explosion near the Syrian border.

Van Leuven is the 16th soldier with strong Oregon ties to have died since the conflict began — and the fourth this year.

“He was the stud of his school,” said Capt. Fay Hutchison, executive officer of the Marines recruiting division in Portland.

A 2002 graduate of Mazama High School in Klamath Falls, Van Leuven earned his football varsity letter as a freshman and won 90 percent of his wrestling matches, his mother said.

He also threw the javelin far enough to earn a mention in the Klamath Falls Herald and News.

“He was always looking for the next challenge,” said Dybevik, who lives in Coos Bay. “I think that’s why he joined the Marines.”

Van Leuven was first deployed to Iraq last April, after his training at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He returned to the states six months later, where he met Jaqueline Trujillo, 18, at the Marine Corps Ball.

“He came home, met a girl — fell in love,” Dybevik said. “He didn’t want to go back. But when the Marines call, you go.”

Dybevik said her son wanted to come back to Oregon, get married and become a teacher.

He called his mother on March 18. “He said, ‘Ma, Guess what?”’ Dybevik said. “I said, ‘What honey?’ He said, ‘I got a Purple Heart today. It’s just a little scratch.”’

She later learned he had been 10 feet from a mortar round.

Dybevik said her son was killed early Saturday in an explosion near the Syrian border.

Marines fought pitched battles against nearly 150 gunmen in Qaim, a city in western Iraq near the Syrian border. Five Marines and scores of insurgents were killed in the 14-hour battle — and Dybevik believes her son was one of the five. Officials with the Marines in Portland declined to confirm the death, citing a 24-hour mourning period before the information may be released.

Van Leuven is survived by his mother, her husband Richard Dybevik and siblings Trevor, Thomas, John and Jeanie. His father, Todd Van Leuven, lives in Klamath Falls.

— Associated Press