At 5-feet-2, Cpl. Marcus Rodriguez was a giant to his family in Queens, a Marine who had the Iwo Jima flag-raising tattooed on one arm and the firefighters' flag-raising at Ground Zero on the other.

He was the youngest of Amarilys and Clemente Hernandez' five children, who went off to Iraq, saying, "I'm willing to die for my country."

Rodriguez's parents and siblings gathered at the family home in Maspeth yesterday, heartbroken that he was killed on the battlefield but proud of the courage he displayed in a life that spanned just 21 years.

"He loved being a Marine. He lived and breathed Marine," said his sister Hyda Hernandez-Lopez, 38, a retired NYPD officer. "He accomplished his dream."

Last Tuesday, an Abrams tank Rodriguez was assigned to careened off a bridge in Iraq and plunged into the Euphrates River. Rodriguez, who used his mother's maiden name, and three other Marines in his crew died.

Military officials said the driver of the tank was shot in the head by a sniper before the 60-ton fighting machine went off the bridge.

Hernandez-Lopez said the military first informed her family early Saturday that her brother's tank was unaccounted for.

On Sunday, the family gathered in Maspeth to pray for his safe return. "We were positive that he was going to come back alive," Hernandez-Lopez said.

But on Monday, the family's hope gave way to heartbreak when they were informed that Rodriguez's body had been recovered from the overturned tank in 20 feet of water.

The family is the city's second to get grim news from Iraq. Word of the death of Lance Cpl. William White, 24, reached his family in Brooklyn Sunday.

Rodriguez's job was to load ammunition into the tank's guns, as they battled Saddam Hussein's army on the way to Baghdad.

"He knew the risks," Hernandez-Lopez said of her baby brother, who was assigned to the Marine's 1st Tank Battalion. "He was willing to take them, and he was willing to die."

Born in Brooklyn and reared in Queens, Rodriguez attended John Adams High School and later graduated from the New York National Guard Challenge program in Peekskill, joining the Corps at 17.

"He found the right path in life, and he was following it," said Hernandez-Lopez.

The family last heard from him on March 25, when they received a package that included Kuwaiti rugs for a cousin and a dolphin figurine for his mother. He wrote that his unit was about to cross the border into Iraq, and promised "everybody would get a gift eventually."

"That's the way he was," Hernandez-Lopez said. "He was an outstanding young man."

Originally published on April 2, 2003