Marine Lance Cpl. Hilario F. Lopez

Died December 12, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Ingleside, Texas; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed Dec. 12 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Texas Marine killed in Iraq fighting

Associated Press

INGLESIDE, Texas — A Marine from the Coastal Bend was killed last weekend in fighting in Iraq, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

Lance Cpl. Hilario F. Lopez of Ingleside was among eight Marines killed Sunday in Iraq’s Anbar province, which includes Fallujah.

Lopez’s death came two days after his 22nd birthday.

No more details were provided by the military about circumstances of Lopez’s death, which was the 117th reported for troops from Texas since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

Timothy Flores, Lopez’s older half-brother, said Marine officials told the family that Lopez and six other Marines were ambushed at a security point.

Flores, 23, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that his stepfather, Jimmy Lopez, woke him up in tears over the weekend to tell him someone had killed his son “like a dog in the street.”

Flores said Lopez had told him conditions were bad in Iraq.

“He had seen many of his friends die over there,” Flores said. “He told me he thought he wouldn’t make it back home.”

Lopez liked to fish, take motors apart and spend time with his father, Flores said.

“He and my dad were very close,” Flores said. “They’d do everything together. I guess it was because he was the baby of the family.”