Painfully shy as a teenager, Manuel A. Ceniceros seemed to come out of his shell when he found his niche in the Marines after high school.
“All through school he never felt like he belonged to anything; he never felt like he fit in,” said his wife, Elizabeth. “When he became a Marine, he finally had a title. He felt like, finally, he belonged to something. He had a lot more confidence and respect for himself and other people.”
Following in the footsteps of his father, who was a Marine, Ceniceros enlisted after graduating from Valley High School in his hometown of Santa Ana, Calif., where he played trumpet in the school band. He aspired to join the Santa Ana police force.
Lance Cpl. Ceniceros, 23, who had served in Afghanistan after the Sept.11, 2001, terrorist attacks, died June 26 in a rocket-propelled grenade explosion while serving as an infantryman in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, his wife said.
He was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 1 Headquarters Company, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
A kid at heart who loved collecting comic books and action figures, Ceniceros was looking forward to starting a family of his own. The couple got married in 2002, five weeks after they had met at Camp Pendleton.
“He felt that every Marine should be like Captain America, always fighting for justice,” his wife said.
Young love: Army Spec. Shawn M. Davies of Aliquippa, Pa., fell in love in the 8th grade.
Though most people shrug off such emotions as a crush, for Davies it stuck. Friend Erica Sweitzer, also of Aliquippa, watched the young love between Davies and Autum Shingler blossom during their adolescence. They were engaged and expected to marry in summer 2005.
But Davies, 22, died of cardiac arrest July 8 in Baghdad, Iraq. He had no previous medical problems, according to Sweitzer.
“I was lucky to watch how their relationship grew,” Sweitzer said.
Davies was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 5th Air Defense Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division Regiment, Ft. Hood, Texas. Sweitzer said Davies enjoyed serving his country. “He was a very caring person,” she said.
Sweitzer said Davies and Shingler planned to move to Texas, where he was based, and start a family.