STORIES OF THE FALLEN

With the death Sunday of the 4,000th U.S. service member in Iraq, Times staffers who have covered the war remember some of the troops who have lost their lives there: a Marine photographed reading a letter from home, a staff sergeant who signed his e-mails “Combat Journalist,” a 20-year-old from Culver City who joked that Tupac Shakur was alive and lying low in Fallouja, and a major who believed in leading from the front and sharing the risks. For five years, Los Angeles Times correspondents and photographers have traveled with the Americans serving in Iraq. They may not have known these troops well, but they will never forget them. PAGES A12, A13