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Marine from S.A. is killed in Iraq
Web Posted: 05/09/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Elizabeth Allen
Express-News Staff Writer
A San Antonio Marine reservist was killed by a suicide bomb in western Iraq, his family learned Saturday night.
Lance Cpl. Lance Tanner Graham, 26, was a gunner riding in the back of a Humvee when two suicide bombers closed in on the convoy, "and that was that," said Suzanne Hildebrand, a close friend of Graham's family.
The Associated Press reported seven U.S. service members in Iraq were killed in violence over the weekend. It was unclear if Graham's death was part of that tally.
Three of the U.S. victims were soldiers killed Sunday in bombings in central Iraq, the U.S. command said. On Saturday, three U.S. Marines and a sailor were killed fighting with insurgents in western Iraq, some of whom fought from inside a hospital, the military said.
More than 300 people, including American forces, have been killed in a torrent of insurgent attacks since Iraq's Cabinet was sworn in April 28.
Graham was assigned to the Weapons Company of 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines.
Family members were not available for comment Sunday.
Hildebrand said she had spoken with Graham's father, Joe Graham, who had served in Vietnam. Graham was proud of his son, a Madison High School graduate, she said, but his loss was almost unbearable.
"We talked about the fact that you tell your children what you did, and when they follow in your footsteps it sometimes makes you proud, and sometimes it scares you," she said. "He was the light of our life. He was my son's best friend."
Graham spent a lot of time with Hildebrand's family, and her son, Ashley, considered him a brother.
Ashley Hildebrand is engaged, He was putting off the wedding awaiting Graham's return so he could be the best man.
"He was not getting married until his brother came home," his mother said.
Graham's reserve unit was called up in December and shipped out to Iraq the first of March, she said.
"The morning he shipped out, Ashley, me and Lance's dad were out there at 3 o'clock in the morning at the Marine base barracks," she said.
The 6-foot-5 Marine was sent off with a huge party attended by many friends, she said.
"They say that about people when they die; 'Oh, he was wonderful and he never did anything wrong,'" Hildebrand said, "but I don't know anybody who disliked him.
"A crooked little old smile, mischief in those eyes," she said. "He was just a gentle, gentle giant."
Graham was mentioned favorably in a recent online letter by Capt. John Kasparian, who had traveled with Graham's company in late April.
"I spent the next two days in the last vehicle of MAP 7 (Mobile Advanced Platoon) helping to provide security. Well actually, I just rode along like a nice quiet passenger," Kasparian wrote to Reminder Online, the Web site of a Massachusetts newspaper chain. "Lance Corporal Lance Graham with his M249G machine gun really provided the security."
Funeral arrangements are pending at Porter-Loring Mortuary North. Services will be held at Northeast Bible Church.
