Marine Staff Sgt. Donald C. May Jr.

Died March 25, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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31, of Richmond, Va.; assigned to 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.; killed in action while conducting convoy operations near the Euphrates River, Iraq.

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Donald C. May Jr. followed his parents into the military, joining the Marines the year his father, a former tank commander, died in a fishing accident.

“He was a clean-cut American boy,” said his mother, Brenda Reese May. “When he decided to go into the military, I was proud. Always scared, but proud.” He died March 25 when his tank fell off a bridge into the Euphrates River.

May took an interest in the military at an early age. His parents had both served in the Marines, and May became a Naval Sea Cadet at age 12 and, later, a police Explorer. After high school, he joined the military police and guarded Iraqi prisoners during the 1991 Gulf War. He left the service for two years, then rejoined as a tank commander “just like his dad,” his mother said.

His wife, Deborah, is expecting their second child.

— Associated Press