Our Latest American Hero #11

bunnylong
Originally uploaded by Randuwa.

Marine Lance Cpl. Bunny Long, 22, of Modesto, Calif.; assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed March 10 by a suicide, vehicle-borne, improvised explosive device in Anbar province, Iraq.


"Modesto Marine had Childhood Dreams of Being a Soldier"

MODESTO, Calif. — A Marine who yearned as a little boy to be a soldier was killed in Iraq when a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into a building he was guarding.

Lance Cpl. Bunny Long, 22, died Friday near Fallujah.

Long wanted to be a soldier and begged for an Army uniform when he was 6 years old, said his brother, Bunna Long, 31.

“We always felt like we needed to give something back for all the things we’ve received,” he said.

Bunny Long, who was born in the United States and graduated from Modesto High School in 2002, was the son of immigrants who arrived here after their first son starved in a Cambodian labor camp in the mid-1970s.

Sim Long, 60, and Yen Chea, 51, left Cambodia with three children after years of war and hardship in their country.

“Life was really hard for them,” said their daughter, Sokha Long, 26. “To have gone through all that and to be able to come to this country, and now my brother passes away.”

AND this,

"Camp Lejeune-based Marine Killed by Suicide Bomber in Iraq"

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A California Marine based at Camp Lejeune was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq last week, the Pentagon said.

Lance Cpl. Bunny Long, 22, of Modesto, Calif., died Friday when vehicle-borne bomb carried by a suicide driver exploded in the violent Anbar province of Iraq. The U.S. military in Iraq reported Friday that a Marine died in a car bombing in Fallujah, which is in Anbar province.

Long was a motor vehicle operator who joined the Marine Corps in July 2004, said Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. Long was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Defense Department said.