Grass Valley Marine Dies in Attack Near Syrian Border
By Allan Lengel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 18, 2005; B04
 

John A. Lucente was always pretty skinny, but would often watch his father work out, admiring his rippling muscles.

As most boys do, he sought to be more like his bodybuilder father as he got older, even while asserting his independence. He joined the Marines, in part to make his father proud, and added some 15 pounds of muscle during boot camp.

"I'm looking more like you, aren't I, Dad?" he had asked his father, Tony, during a visit to the family home in Fresno, said his stepmother, Naomi Lucente.

It was one of the last times the father and son spoke.

Lance Cpl. Lucente, or "JT" as everybody called him, was killed along with three other Marines during a firefight Wednesday in Ubaydi, in Iraq's Anbar province. He was 19.

The four men were part of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I Marine Expeditionary Force. They were attacked during a sweep near the Syrian border, according to a Department of Defense news release.

Lance Cpl. Roger Deeds, 24, of Biloxi, Miss.; Cpl. Jeffrey Rogers, 21, of Oklahoma City; and Cpl. Joshua Ware, 20, of Apache, Okla., were killed by small arms fire. Lucente died from wounds suffered from a hand grenade blast.

Lucente grew up in Fresno, but bounced between houses after his parents divorced. He played soccer in elementary school, but lost interest after that.

A bit of a prankster, he and his older stepsister would often tease each other, bantering and carrying on for hours, according to Naomi Lucente.

"He was hilarious," she said. "He was one of those kids who would start something in class, then jump out and watch everything unfold."

Lucente moved to the Sierra foothills community of Grass Valley four years ago with his mother, Kristine Mason, and attended Bear River High School, where he was in the ROTC.

He was described by those who knew him in Grass Valley as a quiet and thoughtful member of Grass Valley's Calvary Chapel. He reportedly listened to Christian music and liked war movies like "Saving Private Ryan."

During summers at his father's place, he would often say he was in training, according to his stepmother. When asked what for, he would say, "I don't know, but it's going to be something big."

Lucente began expressing an interest in the Marines when he was 17 and a junior in high school, according to his family. His father and several other relatives tried to discourage him, but he insisted, apparently intent on proving himself as a man.

"He wanted to make his father proud," said Naomi Lucente. "That's one of the reasons he joined the Marines."

Lucente committed to the Marines a year before his 2004 graduation. Based in Camp Pendleton, he shipped out in July, traveling through Hawaii and the Philippines before landing in Egypt in September.

"The last e-mail we got was Sept. 10 when he said he was in Egypt and on his way to Iraq," his stepmother said. "He said, 'Don't worry about me. I love you guys so much.' "

His mother got his last e-mail on Oct. 15, his stepfather, Shawn Mason, told several newspapers. The e-mail asked her to hug his siblings, Cris, 15, Cassie, 9, and the 7-week-old brother that Lucente himself named Jake.

"I miss you," Lucente reportedly wrote, "and pray for me and my squad, because we're going into the roughest part in Iraq."

Both parents are grief-stricken and in seclusion.

"His dad is not taking it well at all, not at all," said Naomi Lucente. "This was his son, his boy. He can't even talk."