Another Wave of Grief at Base

The motto of Staff Sgt. William M. Harrell’s unit was “Make Peace or Die.” On Thursday, the man who joined the Marine Corps out of high school gave his life in Iraq, one of 24 men stationed at Camp Pendleton to die last week in heavy fighting with Iraqi insurgents.

Harrell was among six dead Pendleton-based Marines whose names were released Saturday by the Pentagon, capping a week of bad news and grief at the hard-hit base. The death of a seventh California-based Marine killed last week was also announced Saturday. All were members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Harrell, 30, was raised in Placentia and is survived by his wife Kelli, 34, and son Austin, 7.

Kelli Harrell told Associated Press that when she broke the news to her son, he asked: “If he just got shot, can’t they help him?”

She responded: “Daddy can’t be helped right now. Daddy’s with God.”

The Marine’s uncle, Bernie Robertson, said the nephew he had raised since he was a young boy loved being in the Corps and died doing a job he believed in.

“He didn’t want to leave his wife and little boy, but he exemplified the slogan ‘The few, the proud, the Marines,’ ” said Robertson, who served with the Corps in Vietnam.

Harrell joined the Marines after graduating from El Dorado High School in Placentia, Robertson said.

“Billy was an honor man in boot camp, and it went on from there,” said the uncle, who took his nephew in after Robertson’s sister died.

“He was so much more of a Marine than I could ever be. He loved it, and he was going to stay in.”

The tight-knit Camp Pendleton community had braced in recent days for news of those killed, with each announcement of the dead striking close for families on the base and elsewhere.

In Banning, Justin Palmer, 23, said that, with his brother Joshua deployed to Iraq, he had spent much of the week trying to block out news of the mounting American casualties.

“You try not to pay attention, but you watch CNN and you see Camp Pendleton Marines dead. After that you start to wonder and start to worry,” he said.

On Saturday, 1st Lt. Joshua M. Palmer, 25, was on the list of the dead.

“He wanted to be a Marine ever since he was 6 years old. There was something about wearing a uniform, I guess,” his brother said.

It was Joshua’s first deployment to Iraq, Justin said. The young Marine had joined the Corps just a few days after graduating from Banning High School.

“He was single. He hadn’t gotten to having a wife or kids,” his brother said.

The other Camp Pendleton Marines killed in action whose names were released Saturday included Pfc. Christopher Mabry, 19, of Chunky, Miss., who died Wednesday.

Killed Thursday were Palmer; Lance Cpl. Levi T. Angell, 20, of Cloquet, Minn.; Lance Cpl. Michael B. Wafford, 20, of Spring, Texas; and Cpl. Nicholas J. Dieruf, 21, of Versailles, Ky.

In addition, Twentynine Palms-based Lance Cpl. Christopher B. Wasser, 21, of Ottawa, Kan., died Thursday from “injuries received from enemy action,” officials with the Pentagon said.

All the men perished during heavy fighting in the province west of Baghdad that includes the city of Fallouja -- where four American contract workers were ambushed and killed on March 31.

The bodies of those men were burned and desecrated by a mob.

American officials have vowed to find the people responsible for the killings.

Of his nephew’s death, Robertson said Saturday: “As a parent, I am deeply sad. As a Marine, I couldn’t be prouder.”