STAFFORD, VA, USA U.S. Marines CPL, E CO, 2D BN, 6TH MAR, RCT-8, 2D MAR DIV, CAMP LEJEUNE, NC FALLUJAH, IRAQ 01/07/2006
South Dakota native serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq was killed Saturday during bombings and fire fights, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.
Corporal Brett L. Lundstrom, 22, of Stafford, Va., and four other members of the North Carolina-based 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force died in the attacks.
Lundstrom, an Oglala Sioux Tribe member, was born in Vermillion and attended high school in Virginia. His mother, Doyla (Underbaggage) Lundstrom of Black Hawk, is from Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She said her son’s lifelong ambition was to be a Marine.
“He’s always said he was going to be a Marine since he was little,” she told the Rapid City Journal.
Also killed were Lance Corporal Kyle W. Brown, 22, of Newport News, Va.; Lance Corporal Jeriad P. Jacobs, 19, of Clayton, N.C.; Lance Corporal Jason T. Little, 20, of Climax, Mich.; and Lance Corporal Raul Mercado, 21, of Monrovia, Calif.
Brown, Jacobs and Lundstrom were killed by small arms fire during combat near Fallujah, the DoD said. They were members of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Lundstrom’s father, Ed Lundstrom of Detroit, spent 20 years in the Marine Corps before retiring recently.
“People wonder if this generation has what it takes,” Ed Lundstrom told the Journal. “If they want to see that this generation is as great as the other ones, take a look at a guy like Brett and the guys he was serving with. They believed in the mission and never had a bad thing to say.”
Ed Lundstrom, who is from St. Francis on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, said he will most remember his son’s smile.
“He was always in a good mood,” he said. “He was willing to give you the shirt off his back. He was always more concerned about everyone else than he was about himself.”
Brett Lundstrom enlisted in the Marines in January 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in September. He wasn’t due to come home until December, but Doyla Lundstrom said she and her ex-husband heard from him often.
“He called every chance he got,” she said. “Every time he wasn’t patrolling, he was calling home and talking to me and his father.”
Eddy Lundstrom, Brett Lundstrom’s brother, has been serving in the Army in Iraq but returned Tuesday for the funeral.
Doyla Lundstrom said she’d prefer that her son didn’t return to Iraq, but would leave that decision up to him.