Pride and Grief for Fallen Marines
Three Southlanders killed in Iraq are recalled by families and friends for their dedication to the corps.

By Lee Romney and Steve Chawkins, Times Staff Writers
Randal Kent Rosacker, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade

SAN DIEGO -- He was a rough-and-tumble athlete who loved the outdoors and playing war games with his cousins. From a young age, Randal Kent Rosacker knew he wanted to follow his father into the military.

So when the elder Rosacker saw the Marines approaching his home in Bremerton, Wash., he knew what the news would be.

"I had a good idea where my son was at," Rod Rosacker, command master chief on the U.S. subMarine Alabama, said Tuesday. "When the Marines walked up to the front door, that pretty much answered it for me."

The younger Rosacker, who grew up in San Diego, knew at age 10 that he wanted to join the military. The father tried to discourage his son from enlisting immediately after high school, urging him to pursue his athletic talents in college instead.

"I tried talking him out of it, but he was too anxious. He didn't want to wait," said Rosacker, who has been in the Navy for 18 years and lives with his wife, Debra.

Born in Colorado, Randal Rosacker attended junior high and high school in San Diego. Growing up, he teased his two younger sisters often, but always watched out for them, said the youngest, 14-year-old Toni.

"He was very, very protective," she said. "And he would always be there if I needed to talk to him."

Rod Rosacker said his son was outgoing, making friends wherever he went and often being elected captain of sports teams. "He was big-hearted and always stuck up for the guys who got picked on," the elder Rosacker said. "And he did the best he could do at everything."

As a youth, Rosacker spent a few weeks each summer in Colorado with his grandparents and cousins, fishing, hunting and camping. Shawna Glynn, 17, said that her cousin used to pretend that he was in the military and that she and his younger sisters were his enemies.

"He would beat us up, we would go down crying and he would pick us up and tell us not to cry," she said. "He said he was going to make us tough. He sure did that."

But if anyone really messed with his relatives, Glynn said, Rosacker was right there to defend them.

Toni Rosacker said Tuesday that she and her sister Samantha, 21, were sad, but also proud of their brother. She said that the family had received several letters from Randal, some written on food packaging. "In his last letter, he just told us how much he loved us," she said.

The young Marine's grandmother, Patricia Rosacker, said her only grandson always wanted to be like his father. "Because his dad was in the military, he pretty much always knew that's what he wanted to do," Rosacker said from her home in Alamosa, Colo.

Rosacker said she has been watching the news continually since the war began and had been trying to track her grandson's whereabouts. Rosacker, 63, said her grandson died doing something he loved -- serving America. "He believed in what he was doing," she said.

His former baseball coach, Chris Herrin, said Rosacker's teammates could always count on him. "He was somebody who would give the other kids a kick in the butt when they needed it," Herrin said. "He was the kind of guy who you would want fighting for your country."

Rosacker married his high school sweetheart, Brooke, and the young couple moved to North Carolina, where he was stationed with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Camp Lejeune. The couple separated about a year ago, family members said. They did not have children.

Times staff writers Kenneth R. Weiss, Sue Fox, Anna Gorman and Hector Becerra contributed to this report.