Marine Sgt. Shane Folmar

Died September 24, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Sonora, Texas; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed Sept. 24 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq.

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Marine from Sonora killed in Iraq

Associated Press

SONORA — A Marine from West Texas was killed by small-arms fire in Iraq after arriving there only three weeks earlier, his father said.

Shane Folmar, 21, of Sonora was killed the morning of Sept. 24, said Wendell Folmar. He said he was informed of his son’s death by the Marines, who said they would have more details Sept. 27.

“I hope he died knowing he did serve a purpose for the good of the country,” Wendell Folmar said in the Sept. 25 editions of the San Angelo Standard-Times. “I’m sorry people are going to miss being blessed by knowing him as a person with the good-spirited nature he had.”

Folmar was a popular former football player and 2002 graduate of Sonora High School.

“He was a great kid,” Sonora football coach Jason Herring said. “He didn’t have everything given to him on a silver platter. He had some struggles in life, but he was really popular and upbeat.”

Herring said he spoke to Folmar before he went to Iraq and he said he was ready to go and fight for the country.

“I told our kids after the game that what I remember most about him — if this had to happen — he was doing something he wanted to do,” Herring said.

His father said Folmar enjoyed fishing and hunting and would try most anything.

He was based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., but his father didn’t know what unit has son was with. His funeral services are pending.

Sonora is about 65 miles south of San Angelo.

At least 87 Texas service members have died in Iraq since the war began March 20, 2003.