Marine Lance Cpl. Levi T Angell

Died April 8, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Saint Louis, Minn.; assigned to Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed April 8 by hostile fire in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Marine from Cloquet remembered

Associated Press

CLOQUET, Minn. — A few weeks before his death in combat in Iraq, Lance Cpl. Levi Angell sent his pastor a letter.

It had a tone of urgency and, perhaps, fear and loneliness, the Rev. Thomas Brinkley told about 500 people who attended Angell’s funeral Tuesday, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Angell was a proud Marine who was thankful for his faith, Brinkley said. But he was having a difficult time with it, as any 20-year-old suddenly confronted with the realities of war would, Brinkley said. In the end, the pastor said he believes Angell just wanted reassurance that Jesus loved him.

In an often-choked voice, Brinkley said the loss of the mischievous and affectionate kid was a painful reminder that freedoms come with a high price.

“Well done, good and faithful Marine,” Brinkley said. “Well done, good and faithful servant of the Lord. The victory is Levi’s.”

Angell’s burial will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

He died April 8 in Abu Ghurayb on the road to Fallujah. The Humvee he was driving was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. He was assigned to Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Angell’s father, Gordon Angell, said Tuesday it would be another four to six weeks before they learned more details about his son’s death.

He was the third Marine from Carlton County to die in the Gulf region in less than a month. Pfc. Moises Langhorst, 19, of Moose Lake was killed in combat April 5. Langhorst’s friend and classmate at Moose Lake High School, Pfc. Matthew G. Milczark, 18, of Kettle River was found dead from a noncombat shooting at a chapel in Kuwait on March 7.

Angell received full military honors at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. His casket was draped in an American flag, and several members of Angell’s unit who are not stationed in Iraq served as pallbearers.

At the service’s end, a Marine sergeant conducted a roll call of the present unit members. When he got to Angell’s name, there was no answer. He repeated it twice more, but louder, as though he was simply calling a straggler back into the ranks.

Outside, another Marine squad fired a 21-gun salute as a bugler played “Taps.” With a hint of gunsmoke still in the air, Angell’s mother, Loretta, received the flag, which was ceremoniously folded into a triangle.

Angell’s parents are living in a nightmare from which they can’t awaken, his father said. But while he said he misses his son dearly, they consider him a hero.

Another comfort has come from the hundreds of letters and calls they have received nonstop since word of his death spread, he said. Some came from as far as Germany and Australia.

“We got a letter from a Marine who was with him” the day he died, Gordon Angell said. “He said, ‘He was always happy, always smiling. Levi brought his happiness here and spread it around. When he left, he left his happiness. It’s still here.”’

Levi Angell entered the Marines after graduating from Cloquet High School in 2002.

“He was proud to be in the Marine Corps,” said one of his best friends, Robert Hansen III. “Now, I just wish I had gone there with him, that I could have been serving there, too. It just feels like I’m missing a family member.”

The last time Hansen saw Angell was when he was home for the holidays. On New Year’s Eve, they hung out and watched movies. Levi knew that when he got back to Camp Pendleton in California that he’d be off to Iraq, Hansen said.

The friends didn’t talk about the dangers, though.

“We knew where he was going,” he said. “We just left it at that.”

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Seventh Minnesota serviceman killed in Iraq

CLOQUET, Minn. — A 20-year-old Marine from this northeastern Minnesota town has become the seventh Minnesota serviceman to die in Iraq, his grandmother said.

Levi Angell was killed when his Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, said Lila Angell, also of Cloquet. She said her grandson joined the Marines shortly after graduating from Cloquet High School in 2002.

Including Angell, three Marines from Minnesota have died in Iraq this week.

Lila Angell said her grandson came home for Christmas and “just smiled from ear-to-ear.”

“He was so proud of what he was doing,” she said.

She described him as a religious young man who “just loved” his church.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Another Marine from northeastern Minnesota, Pfc. Moises Langhorst of Moose Lake, was killed this week. A Marine from Eden Prairie, Cpl. Tyler Fey, was killed by hostile fire last Sunday.

Fey was assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. Langhorst was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 1st Marine Division, also of the Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton.

Angell’s rank and unit weren’t immediately clear.

News of Angell’s death came a year after Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in a central Baghdad square, signaling his ouster. Yet recently Marines have been battling Sunni Muslims west of the capital and coalition forces are trying to put down a Shiite uprising across central and southern Iraq.

— Associated Press