Cory L. Palmer

Cory L. Palmer, a 2002 graduate of Seaford High School, Cory Palmer was on the varsity soccer team during his senior year. Before that, head coach Tim Lee said he had seen Cory Palmer around school and perceived him as an "ornery and mischievous guy."

After Cory Palmer joined the Marines, Ralph Palmer said, his parents hung a Marine flag next to "Old Glory" at their house each day. He said his family is struggling to deal with the loss.

Palmer was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, Ralph Palmer said, and had been there for five weeks when he was injured. His first tour lasted seven months. Ralph Palmer said his nephew never talked much about the war but was proud to be a Marine.

"He was always positive and wasn’t hesitant to go to war either time," Ralph Palmer said. "He felt he was doing the right thing."

Palmer, a member of the 2nd Recon Battalion, A Company 1st Platoon, was injured when the Humvee he was in was hit with an explosive near Fallujah about 9:20 p.m., Baghdad time, on May 1, 2006, according to his aunt, Montine Willin.

When Marine officials contacted the injured soldier’s parents, Charles and Danna Palmer, on May 2, 2006, they said that the 21-year-old would be taken to a hospital in Germany. They were later told he would be taken to a hospital in San Antonio, and the Marines arranged their travel, said Ralph Palmer.

After the plane he was on left Germany, Palmer experienced complications from his injuries, Ralph Palmer said, which forced an emergency landing in Nova Scotia, Canada. As Charles and Danna Palmer anxiously waited in San Antonio for their son to land, they were given the news that he had died on the way.

"It was just his time to go, I guess," Ralph Palmer said.

Palmer is one of 2,415 soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Of those, 2,276 have been killed since President Bush announced the end of combat operations in April 2003.

Still, he didn’t expect the worst. "Every day after the accident, I hoped that everything would be all right," he said.

As the news spread Sunday and Monday, residents across Seaford and Delaware joined him in mourning.

All flags in the Sussex County community will fly at half-staff until after Palmer’s funeral, officials announced Monday evening.

"Anyone who’s willing to give their life for their country deserves this honor," said Seaford Mayor Edward H. Butler Jr.

Corporal Palmer was buried at  Arlington National Cemetery.

“You are in the presence of an American hero,” said Lieutenant Richard Ryan, a Navy chaplain. “I saw people walking all around the neighborhood (Sunday). As I got closer to the church I realized what was going on — Marine Corps flags everywhere, American flags everywhere. They were here for you guys.”

An honorary Marine pallbearer stood at attention next to the casket, draped with an American flag, during the ceremony.

Marine Captain Matthew Welch awarded the Purple Heart to the Palmer family. Hundreds of people, many with flags or visual signs of patriotism, jammed the streets to witness the 21-gun salute and taps, part of military honors held outside between the church and the Seaford fire hall.

“Your son did not die in vain,” said Lieutenant Ryan. “He died attempting to keep America and the world free from terror.”

To accommodate the huge funeral crowd, closed-circuit viewing was available in the St. John’s second-floor parish and the Seaford Volunteer Fire Hall.

At the start of the ceremony, some wept openly as a photo montage traced Corporal Palmer’s life from infancy, through boyhood and teenage years to adulthood as a U.S. Marine.

Injured May 1, 2006, Corporal Palmer died four days before his 22nd birthday.

“My first reaction was to wonder how a family, an extended family, a community could cope with such a terrible tragedy, such unspeakable loss,” said the Rev. Boyd Etter of St. John’s UMC. “As we began to share together over these past couple of weeks, it became that the answer is to be found in faith.”

The Rev. Etter said Cory was a person others couldn’t help but love.

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Ryan Joseph Cantafio

Ryan Joseph Cantafio joined the Marine Corps at the age of 17 as a high school student in 2000, at Beaver Dam High School, in Beaver Dam Wisconsin.

After training at Camp Pendelton Ryan was deployed in September of 2004 as part of the Marine Corps Reserve’s 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Chicago, Illinois  – Fox Company.

Ryan was married a few months before he was deployed.

While in Iraq, Ryan duties included manning the 50 caliber gun mounted on his Marine Humvee. Many of Ryan’s emails home note the happy Iraqi’s that we now liberated for the 1st in history.

Ryan became an "example setter" for his unit, volunteering for most missions when asked.

On Thanksgiving Morning 2004, Ryan wrote home, wishing his family a Happy Thanksgiving; again telling them about his fondness for Iraqi people and their children.

On that night, November 25, 2004, Ryan again volunteered for a mission. It was to be his last mission. Ryan Cantafio died as result of enemy action in Al Andar Province, Iraq. His Humvee was hit by a remote-controlled roadside bomb. Ryan was 22-years old.

10-days after his death, the entire town of Beaver Dam came to Ryan funeral. The streets were lined with people holding American flags as tears rolled down their faces on the entire route from the Chapel to the cemetery. The grave site was crowded as well. Ryan was loved by everyone whose life he touched. He loved hunting and fishing and his beloved Green Bay Packers. He was loving brother, supportive son and a loving husband.

As his cousin Joe Cantafio; a USO-Entertainer who had returned from entertaining Troops in Iraq and few months earlier, drove home to Chicago after the funeral, he began to write "Brave Warrior" a song inspired by his young cousin’s life and death as a true American Hero, but dedicated to all American warriors who have paid the ultimate price to preserve American freedom throughout American history.

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