Marine Staff Sgt. Kenneth B. Pospisil

Died December 16, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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35, of Andover, Minn.; assigned to the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Dec. 14 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in the vicinity of Ramadi, Iraq.

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Minnesota man, longtime Marine, killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s latest casualty in Iraq was a man who loved the Marines, his mother said Dec. 16.

Staff Sgt. Kenneth B. Pospisil, 35, of Andover, died Dec. 14 when a bomb when off near Al Ramadi, the U.S. Department of Defense announced.

His mother, Jeanne Pospisil, said military officials told her her son was on his way to disarm the bomb when it went off.

“He was trained very well in his job,” she said. “He was very careful. He had all the gear on he was supposed to have when this explosive device went off. We’re just stunned.”

Kenneth Pospisil “loved the Marine Corps” and felt he belonged in Iraq, his mother said. “It was his whole life, his adult life. He loved his job, the guys he worked with. He was just a Marine.”

Pospisil was assigned to the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Jeanne Pospisil said she and her husband, Ken, visited their only son at Camp Lejeune, where he was stationed before being deployed to Iraq in September. It was his first tour in country.

Kenneth Pospisil — known as Blake — grew up in Anoka and attended Anoka High School before joining the Army and getting his GED during basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. A year later, he joined the Marines.

Pospisil was the 31st Minnesotan to die as a result of injuries sustained in the Middle East during the Iraq war.

“We all expect our children to come home,” Jeanne Pospisil said. “It’s hard.”