Cpl. Bryan Scripsick
(reprinted from PigStye.com, September 10, 2007)

If you knew Bryan Scripsick, you liked him.

That’s what his brother, Brett Scripsick, said Saturday as he remembered the Marine corporal who was killed Thursday at the age of 22 in a suicide bomb attack north of Baghdad.

Brett said while his brother could certainly be tough when he had to be, he also was the “nicest and sweetest” person you could ever hope to meet.

Seven years older than his brother, Brett said he would let Bryan in on neighborhood football games, though he would “bend the rules” a little bit for his younger sibling.

While the family home is in Wayne, Bryan Scripsick graduated in 2004 from Pauls Valley High School, where he played safety and wide receiver on the football team.

Brett Scripsick said his brother wanted to play college football. Bryan probably would have graduated from college and gone on to coach football or baseball, his brother said.

As it turned out, Bryan chose to join the U.S. Marine Corps, which he did right after his 19th birthday in August 2004.

Brett said his brother lived with

him for a few months after graduating from high school and the two talked about Bryan’s decision to join the Corps. Brett recalled Saturday that they talked about how Bryan would be far from home and from family and friends.

They also talked about the structure that being a Marine would require, about someone always telling you what to do and where to be.

However, they did not talk about the worst-case scenario, Brett said Saturday.

He added that his brother was determined to serve his country and no one would have been able to talk him out of it, anyway.

“It was always a possibility in my mind that this could happen,” Brett said of the news delivered to his family Thursday.

Bryan apparently didn’t let himself dwell on such thoughts. His MySpace.com page, last updated on Aug. 26, featured the mantra, “Have Fun, Stay Young.”

The site also prominently displays the Superman logo. Brett said Saturday that, to his knowledge, his brother wasn’t inordinately interested in the famed superhero.

Instead, Brett said perhaps it indicated his brother’s spirit and youthful bravado.

Still, it’s obvious from his MySpace.com page that Bryan was not oblivious to the hazards of Iraq.

On the site, he listed his heroes as “falling brothers.”

There was a moment of silence Friday night before the Pauls Valley football game. It was homecoming.