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Marine Pvt. Jonathan L. Gifford
Died March 23, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
30, of Decatur, Ill.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed in action near Nasiriyah, Iraq, March 23. He was listed as missing until April 14, when the Defense Department announced his remains had been identified.
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Jonathan Gifford was always for the underdog, so it was fitting that he would be fighting for the Iraqi people, his family said. “He said, with the way people were treated over there, he was willing to go,” said his mother, Vicky Langley. “I’m very proud of him.”
Gifford was killed in combat March 23 while his unit worked to secure bridges on the outskirts of Nasiriyah in Iraq.
He graduated from high school in 1991 and joined the Marines in 2001, fulfilling an ambition he had since he was a teenager. Gifford was divorced, with a 4-year-old daughter.
— Associated Press