Marine Pfc. Oscar A. Martinez

Died October 12, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of North Lauderdale, Fla.; assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed Oct. 12 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Florida Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

NORTH LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida Marine was killed Tuesday when a mortar fired by insurgents exploded at a U.S. base where he was eating with his unit in the Iraqi province of Anbar, his sister said.

Pfc. Oscar A. Martinez, 19, joined the Marine Corps last year, shortly before graduating from North Lauderdale High School, said his sister, Morena Martinez. He was a member of the I Marine Expeditionary Force based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“Ever since he was little he dreamt of being a Marine,” Morena Martinez said Wednesday. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

His sister said the Marine Corps first refused to accept him unless he lost weight. He weighed 210 pounds at the time, but began running around his block wearing garbage bags and sweat pants to sweat off the weight, his sister said. He reported for duty in December.

“When I asked him why he joined the Marines, he said, ‘If I’m going to do something, I’m going to be the best,”’ Morena Martinez said.

Oscar Martinez was born in Dallas in 1984 after his family moved to the United States from El Salvador. The family moved to South Florida in 1987.

His mother died nine years ago, leaving him and his three younger siblings to be raised by his uncle, Rene Martinez, and the children’s grandmother, Maria Marta Mendez.

When several Marines broke the news to the family early Wednesday, Mendez yelled at them, asking why they sent her grandson to fight, Morena Martinez said.

“I told her it’s not their fault,” she said. “We can’t be mad at them because it’s something he wanted to do.”