Marine Pfc. Andrew Halverson

Died October 9, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Grant, Wis.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed Oct. 9 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Wisconsin Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

MUSCODA, Wis. — The Department of Defense said a Marine from southwest Wisconsin has died while serving in Iraq, becoming the 22nd soldier from Wisconsin to die in combat in Iraq.

Pfc. Andrew Halverson, 19, of the village of Muscoda, died as a result of enemy action in Anbar province, authorities said Sunday.

Anthony Broadbent, president of the southwestern Wisconsin village of Muscoda, said Halverson graduated from the local high school with Broadbent’s daughter last year.

“It’s sad that we had to lose somebody that young over there,” he said.

Broadbent’s daughter, Rebecca, told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Halverson seemed confident after learning he was headed to Iraq.

“He didn’t really say much at all,” Broadbent said. “He just said: ‘I’m going over to Iraq.’ ”

She said the tall, muscular, brown-haired Halverson, a former Riverdale Chieftain football player, returned from Marine Corps basic training much leaner than before he left.

“He wanted to fight for our community and country,” she said.

Halverson was known as a “character,” who was involved in many school and community activities, Broadbent said.

“He liked to joke around. He was voted the class clown in our senior year of high school,” she said. “He got along with anybody and everybody.”

Halverson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to the Defense Department.

The village president said other residents from the village of 1,500 people have served in Iraq, but “they have returned.”

Halverson’s father, Joel Halverson, was too distraught to talk about his son’s death when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reached him by cell phone Sunday.

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Marine laid to rest in southern Wisconsin

SHOPIERE, Wis. — Salutes from a Marine Corps honor guard marked the services Monday for Pfc. Andrew Halverson, killed in Iraq the day before his 20th birthday.

Halverson, who died Oct. 9, was mourned by people from the two places where he spent most of his life — the village of Muscoda in Grant County and the town of Shopiere just north of Beloit in Rock County.

Several hundred people packed the town of Turtle Community Center and a tent outside for the funeral. Family members, friends and two ministers gave eulogies for Halverson, a 2003 graduate of Riverdale High School in Muscoda.

Rodney McFall, Halverson’s uncle, choked back tears while telling of the time he spent with his nephew shortly after Halverson graduated from Marine boot camp at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

McFall, who was working in Hollywood, said the two went to Hollywood Boulevard to shop for Halverson’s “civvies.”

His nephew at first walked with head hung low, self-conscious about his new Marine uniform, McFall said.

“He was unsure of himself and what he was,” McFall said.

But as they continued to walk, Halverson started getting salutes of “semper fi” from men along the street, referring to the Marine motto of “semper fidelis” — or “always faithful” in Latin.

“He started walking proud,” McFall said. “I was proud, proud of Andrew the man and Andrew the Marine.”

The mourners included two full rows of Halverson’s classmates.

Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Janesville paid their respects, as did military leaders and veterans.

Later, skies were overcast and a misty rain fell as two buglers sounded “Taps” and seven Marines fired three volleys each to salute Halverson at his burial in the Shopiere Cemetery.

Two Marine sergeants lifted a wind-whipped American flag from the brown wooden coffin, carefully folded it and presented it to family members huddled under a tent erected at the gravesite.

Halverson died as the result of enemy action in Iraq’s Anbar province, military authorities said.

Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Daniel Wyatt, 22, from Racine, was killed four days later, raising the number of troops with Wisconsin ties killed in the Iraq war to 23.

— Associated Press