Marine Pvt. Noah L. Boye

Died April 13, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Grand Island, Neb.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed April 13 by hostile fire in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Hundreds gather to honor fallen Grand Island Marine

Associated Press

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Marine Pvt. Noah Boye will be remembered for his distinctive smile, a big husky laugh and the way he touched people’s lives.

About 700 people turned out Wednesday at the Evangelical Free Church as Boye was laid to rest with full military honors. The 2001 Grand Island Senior High School graduate was killed in action earlier this month while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Boye’s family was presented with his Purple Heart.

“He touched a lot more people’s lives then I thought one person could,” Joseph Boye said after his brother’s service. He said the community support his family has received since his brother’s death has been phenomenal.

The service included the showing of a video that included memories from Boye’s family and friends. Among those featured was Gary King, Boye’s oldest brother.

“I never saw him with a scowl on his face,” King said. “He was a good guy, a great friend and a great brother. Now he’s a great hero.”

Boye’s brothers said he had a distinctive smile, marked by a chipped tooth.

Several of his high school friends who were featured on the video also remembered Boye’s grin, along with his big, husky laugh.

He was family, one of them said.

He was a magnet that drew everyone toward him, a friend said. Another friend said Boye had a distinguished walk and held himself well.

Marine Daniel Melgoza, Boye’s friend, said he remembers hearing Boye play his guitar and sing at night in the barracks while at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“Now when I go back to Camp Pendleton, there’s something missing. There’s a hole there,” he said.

Boye’s brother Joshua Boye also served in the Marines. Joseph Boye was in the Army until November.

“We all three served proudly,” Joshua Boye said. “I’m very proud to say I was his brother, that I am his brother. I love him, and I’ll miss him forever.”

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Grand Island students honor alumnus who died in Iraq

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — Students at Grand Island’s Walnut Hill Middle School are honoring a former student who died in Iraq by writing letters to his family.

Students wrote letters Thursday on white and blue paper to the family Marine Pvt. Noah Boye.

Boye, a former Walnut Hill student and 2001 Grand Island Senior High School graduate, was killed during fighting in Fallujah, Iraq, on April 5.

Along with the letters to Boye’s family, students tied yellow ribbons to trees outside the school and observed a moment of silence.

Walnut Hill teacher Chuck DeWitt said it was obvious that students were deeply affected by Boye’s death.

“We preach that freedom isn’t free and talk about it,” DeWitt said, “But I don’t think it makes much sense until something like this happens.”

— Associated Press

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Grand Island Marine killed near Fallujah

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — A 21-year-old Marine from Grand Island was killed in Iraq on Monday when he came under enemy fire near Fallujah, his mother said.

Noah Boye deployed near Fallujah in January, after finishing a tour of duty last year with the first coalition of troops to go into Iraq in March 2003.

“I didn’t get a lot of detail, but they told me that he died a hero,” said Diana Barela, Boye’s mother.

Boye graduated in 2001 from Grand Island Senior High. After graduation, he joined the Marine Corps. He was in Iraq for four months in 2003, came home and then was redeployed to Iraq last month.

The last contact that Barela had with her son was a letter she received from him three weeks ago dated March 7.

“He was in Kuwait and was headed north to Baghdad,” she said. “That was the last time I heard from him.”

Boye’s father, Brett Boye, lives in Montana.

Noah Boye has four brothers, Gary, 31, Joshua, 27, Joseph, 23, and Marshall, 19.

Joseph Boye was also among the troops that made the initial invasion in Iraq last March with the Army. He is now home and no longer in the Army.

Joseph Boye said he made sure to tell his brother the last time they spoke in January that he loved him, but he thought he would be OK.

“With me and him both going through the invasion and everything, we both had been through it all,” he said. “You figure if you can make it through a war, you can make it through about anything. Him going back didn’t seem to be like a danger because of what we went through in March of last year. But it was more dangerous this time because you can’t see where people are coming from. I was worried about him and everything, but I figured he would make it through all right.”

At least 83 U.S. troops have been killed in action so far this month, with the most recent death announced on Tuesday. The number wounded so far in April exceeds the total for any other full month of the war by more than 220.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the Pentagon said 678 U.S. troops had died since the war began. Of the total, 540 have died since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat was over.

Barela said her son was never resentful about being in Iraq and was proud to serve his country there.

“Every one of my kids that had to go and do something like this said that it was their job,” she said. “They never moaned or groaned about it. But when he called me and told me that he was going to be working out of Fallujah, he did sound a little tense about that. But he just always said, ‘Mom, that’s my job. It’s what I have to do.”’

Boye’s family and friends gathered at his mother’s house on Tuesday. They remembered him as the life of the party and a genuine and gentle man.

Gabriel Trejo, 22, of Grand Island, called Boye the greatest friend in the world.

“He was always there for everybody and anybody. He never hated anyone. He loved everyone,” Trejo said. “I loved him like a brother. He will always be with me.”

— Associated Press

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President Bush meets with mother of slain Marine

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — President Bush expressed his thanks to the mother of a slain Marine from Grand Island and then gave her a hug during a recent service in California.

Diana Barela’s 21-year-old son, Noah Boye, was killed in Iraq about eight months ago. She said Bush met with her for five to seven minutes during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton on Dec. 7.

“I looked him right in the eye and I said ‘Mr. President, it is such an honor to meet you’ and then I said, ‘My son believed in what he was doing,’ ” Barela said.

Barela said she began to cry, and the president hugged her. She took a pin with Noah’s picture on it and asked if Bush would accept it. He told her it would be an honor.

The president gave her a medal in her son’s honor.

“I looked him straight in the eye and I said, ‘Noah was your faithful servant’ and he again looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I know he was,’ and he gave me a kiss,” said Barela.

Barela said she doesn’t know why she was chosen to meet the president. Only 40 families were invited.

— Associated Press