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LCpl. Randy Newman

(reprinted from OregonLive.com, August 30, 2006)

Mom tucked in fallen Marine's heart

REDMOND -- Marine Lance Cpl. Randy Lee Newman was a big, full-hearted Central Oregon boy, equally happy on horseback in the Ochoco Mountains or cruising in the cab of his lifted Dodge Ram pickup.

The 2003 graduate of Bend's Mountain View High School died this month in Iraq and was remembered Tuesday at a public memorial in Redmond.

A self-proclaimed "momma's boy," Newman, 21, was also a valiant warrior and proud Marine who everyday strove to honor his family, country and God, family and friends said.

"I love sports, fast cars, big trucks, snowmobiles and good music," Newman wrote from Iraq to a friend at one point. "And one more thing, I love my mom."

Newman, a member of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Marines Division based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., was killed Aug. 20 by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Iraq's northern Anbar province.

The blast also killed Marine Cpl. Adam A. Galvez of Salt Lake City and Navy hospitalman Chadwick Kenyon of Tucson, Ariz.

At Newman's memorial, U.S. flags lined the grounds of the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center as roughly 2,300 people gathered inside the cavernous main arena, normally a venue for dirt bike rallies, rodeos and graduations, including Newman's three years ago.

The two-hour ceremony began and ended with the bagpipes and drums of the Portland Police Highland Guard. On one side of a low stage was a picture of the young Marine in dress uniform, staring ahead sternly. Nearby a younger, jovial Newman smiled out from his senior picture in a white T-shirt emblazoned with "USA."

Marines presented Newman's parents, Jerry and Ramona Newman, with a Purple Heart and Gold Star for his service. Later a slide show set to music showed Newman's growth from a youngster with a spiky blond mullet and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt to a tall, trim Marine preparing to ship overseas.

"Lance Corporal Newman was the best Oregon had to give, and we will miss him very, very much," said Gov. Ted Kulongoski, himself a former Marine.

Friends, fellow Marines and mentors talked of how Newman found success in sports or other ventures not necessarily through natural talent but by sheer doggedness and enthusiasm.

Within his platoon he was considered a "fast tracker," someone who constantly pushed himself, according to notes from fellow Marines. That initiative got him promoted from a driver to the gunner in his eight-wheeled light armored vehicle.

"If I'm going to be here," he wrote home from Iraq, "I might as well be the best."

Dan LeLaCheur, the family's pastor, read a list of words that described Newman: integrity, tenacity, loyal, manly, hero.

"Randy had a very strong sense of what's right and what's wrong," LeLaCheur said. "If Randy saw the high road, it was the only path he would take."

Again and again speakers praised Newman's devotion to his parents and younger brothers, Kenny, 8, and Danny, 18. The Marine's tenderness for his family was obvious in letters home.

"I love you all so much," he wrote. "You all are the most important things to me in this world."

Newman will be buried today in a private cemetery at Willamette National Cemetery.