In Memoriam

Associated Press -- OKLAHOMA CITY — A Marine reservist with Oklahoma ties was among six enlisted men killed Monday in a firefight with insurgents west of Baghdad, the Defense Department has confirmed.

Lance Cpl. Roger Dale Castleberry Jr., 26, of Cedar Park, Texas, was assigned to the Marine Corps Reserve’s 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, based in San Antonio. However, he was attached to a reserve unit from Ohio when he was killed.

Several of Castleberry’s relatives, including his mother and father, Deborah and Roger Dale Castleberry, Sr., live in Durant. Castleberry also left behind his wife, who lives in Cedar Park.

“The world has lost a really wonderful young man.” Deborah Castleberry said. “We want people to never forget his sacrifice.”

His family got two e-mails from him Monday, the first one requesting everyone to stop sending food because he would not be able to eat it all before he returned in October, she said.

“He only had a couple of months left. He was so excited about coming home, but he was very happy about doing his job there,” Deborah Castleberry said.

The second e-mail urged his family not to worry about him because none of the sniper units in his battalion had ever suffered a casualty.

Later that day, Castleberry’s unit was ambushed and overpowered by a large number of insurgents who killed all six members of his team, military officials told the family.

“If I know my son, his last minutes were spent trying to help and save his fellow Marines,” she said. “He would have wanted it that way.”

From the time Dale Castleberry was a little boy growing up in Austin, he dreamed of becoming a Marine, his mother said.

“He wore camouflage clothes to school when he was in kindergarten and my husband used to have to tell him, ‘Dale, you have other clothes,” she said.

Dale Castleberry joined the Marines one year after he graduated from Round Rock, Texas, High School, which he attended for its ROTC program.

“We said, ‘Do you want to do something else with your life?’ and he said, ‘No, this is all I ever want to do,”’ Deborah Castleberry said.

“The most important thing I’d want people to know about Dale was that he had a tremendous amount of integrity,” she said. “He never smoked, he never drank and he never cussed. He loved people and children. He was looking forward to being a father someday.”

Castleberry’s family planned to throw a welcome back party when he returned.

“We will never get to have that coming home party for him, but we are going to honor him in his death,” Deborah Castleberry said. “He put his life on the line for all of us and we need to honor our military everyday.”