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LANCE CPL. REECE E. LODDER
Lt. Col. Matt Baker, commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Sgt. Maj. Dwight D. Jones, battalion sergeant major, 1/3, pause at the battlefield memorial of Cpl. Curtis M. Swenson, Weapons Company, 1/3, during a memorial service at Dewey Square Thursday. Hundreds attended the ceremony in honor of five 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Marines who died supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom, and one killed in a training accident prior to deploying.
LANCE CPL. REECE E. LODDER
Lt. Col. Matt Baker, commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Sgt. Maj. Dwight D. Jones, battalion sergeant major, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, pause at the battlefield memorial of Cpl. Curtis M. Swenson, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, during a memorial ceremony at Dewey Square Thursday. Hundreds attended the ceremony in honor of five 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment Marines who died supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, during Operation Enduring Freedom, and one killed in a training accident prior to deploying.
More than 1,000 Marines and families with ties to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Kaneohe Bay held a memorial for fallen service members yesterday.
Five of the fallen Marines, Cpl. Mark D. Juarez, Lance Cpl. Jacob A. “Slim” Meinert, Lance Cpl. Timothy J. Poole, Jr., Lance Cpl. Noah M. Pier, and Cpl. Curtis M. Swenson, were killed in action during the battalion’s deployment to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
The unit recently returned to Hawaii from the seven-month deployment that began in November.
A sixth Marine, Lance Cpl. Zachary D. TenBrook, was killed in October in a vehicle accident during predeployment training at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
