One Day In Iraq: A Marine Father's Lament

DE LA TORRE, JESSE

Age 29. Lance corporal, U.S. Marine Corps. 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force

Hostile fire, Anbar province

Aureliano De La Torre didn't want his son Jesse to join the Marines. "It was his own idea," Aureliano says. "I didn't agree, but there was nothing I could do." As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unfolded, Jesse grew determined to get involved as he mulled his future and the state of the world from his hometown of Aurora, Ill. He told his father that someone had to do something to stop al-Qaeda. Jesse was a gifted...

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