North Providence Marine killed in Iraq remembered as upbeat

By Brooke Donald, Associated Press, 4/7/2004 16:18

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) In Lance Cpl. Matthew Serio's last e-mail to his parents from the desert of Iraq, he requested homemade cookies and chewing tobacco.

''The guys had run out,'' his father, Anthony, explained. ''It was dry, dirty and hot, and he was looking out for his friends.''

Serio, 21, was killed in Anbar province, home to Fallujah, Iraq, on Monday, after his unit, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, arrived to help quell an uprising, his father said.

His parents were contacted on Tuesday by the Marines, who told them Serio, of North Providence, was hit by shrapnel. On Wednesday, the Defense Department confirmed Serio's death from injuries received from hostile fire.

A former high school football player who was considering a career in law enforcement, Serio enlisted in the Marines in 2001, after graduating from North Providence High School.

''He wanted to be a part of a team. He found that in the Marines,'' Anthony Serio said.

After boot camp, Serio was ordered to Camp Pendleton, Calif. As a recruit, he watched the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, on television. His father said the attacks didn't deter him from service.

''My wife would say she tried to talk him out of it. But patriotism was high. He wanted to be a Marine,'' the elder Serio said.

Matthew Serio's unit was one of the first into Iraq at the start of the war, his family said. Photos he sent home show him standing with his company atop the ruins of one of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palaces last April.

Serio returned to North Providence a few times after President Bush declared an end to major combat last May. His last trip home was around Thanksgiving, his father said.

Serio brought Iraqi cigarettes home as gifts. He told funny stories about combat, ruined cities and life as a soldier.

''He was always good to have around. He was always upbeat and could get along with anybody,'' his father said.

Serio was the second of three boys. His older brother, A.J., 23, is in the Navy, serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. His younger brother, Chris, 19, is a freshman at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire.

''We're proud,'' the elder Serio said. ''He was a Marine and he had a job to do and he did it.''