Concord Marine Dies In Iraq Suicide Bombing

Sept. 8 (BCN) — The grandmother of U.S. Marine Cpl. Mick R. Bekowsky said today that her grandson died in Iraq Monday while protecting the freedom of every single American.

"We want everyone to know, he died to protect your freedom, not just his mother's, not just his father's, everybody's," Cecile Bekowsky said today.

Bekowsky, 21, of Concord, was killed along with six other Marines in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday.

According to the department, Bekowsky was assigned to the Second Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton.

Bekowsky signed up with the Marines in June 2001, two months after he graduated from Concord High School and one month after he turned 18 years old, his grandmother said today.

"He's always wanted to be something having to do with macho soldiers," Cecile said.

He was doing what he loved and he was good at it, his father, Brian Bekowsky said today. He was a "patriot to the bone" and a leader, the elder Bekowsky said.

Bekowsky was called to duty shortly after Sept. 11, which was sooner than he expected, according to his family.

He had the option not to go, but he chose to anyway, Cecile said. "I told him this isn't what you signed up for," but he felt it was his patriotic duty to go, she said.

Cecile described her grandson as outdoorsy and said he liked to do all the typical "boy-type" things such as hunting, fishing, and riding dirt bikes. He was strong, she said, and a football player in high school.

Bekowsky's father described him as "your average kid," with an emphasis on the word "kid," and said he wants people to really understand that about his son.

"He was just like the kid who lives down the street from you or works in the supermarket.

"People forget that these men and women we send over there are not men and women, they are kids," Brian said.

Bekowsky died on his second tour in Iraq, a little over a month before he was due to come home, his grandmother said.

"The first time he came home, we had a big party," Cecile said.

In front of his family's Concord home stands a flagpole Bekowsky carved before he was first sent to Iraq. He raised a flap up it and told his family to leave it there until he returned, according to Cecile.

Today that flag flies at half-mast, as do many others around Contra Costa County, in honor of Bekowsky, his family said.

He father said in honor of his son and other fallen soldiers, he wants people to look at themselves and ask, "'what have done today to deserve to have someone dying for me?"'

Bekowsky is survived by his father, Brian, his mother, Joan, his grandmother Cecile and his 13-year-old sister, Haley.

The Bekowsky family is planning funeral services that will be open to the public, his father said.