Our Latest American Hero #21

robertgposivio
Originally uploaded by Randuwa.

May is quickly turning into as bloody a month as April for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tonight one Minnesota family has been asked to bear the unbearable. My prayers are spinning outward for each of them.


Marine Lance Cpl. Robert G. Posivio III, 22, of Sherburn, Minn.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed May 23 while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Anbar province, Iraq. Also killed was Pfc. Steven W. Freund.

"Soldier Is Second Brother To Die In Family"

SHERBURN, Minn. — A Marine from the southern Minnesota town of Sherburn was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, a spokesman for the family said Wednesday.

Lance Cpl. Robert Posivio III died Tuesday while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in the Al Anbar Province, said Tom Hawkins, Posivio’s godfather.

Hawkins said Posivio was a passenger in a high mobility multipurpose vehicle that was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Posivio, 22, the son of Robert Posivio Jr. and Patti Posivio of rural Sherburn, had been recently sent back into combat after being injured in a mortar attack on April 13. His unit came under fire in Al Anbar Province near Fallujah and suffered two deaths in the earlier attack.

About three weeks after that attack, Posivio’s mother told the Sentinel of Fairmont that her son had suffered a severe concussion and shrapnel wounds. She said one of the Marines who was killed then, Lance Cpl. Stephen Perez, died while saving Posivio’s life.

A photo posted on a Marine Corps Web site shows Posivio kneeling before a memorial made from a helmet resting on a rifle with a set of identification tags and a pair of combat boots during a memorial service for Perez on April 28 at Camp Fallujah in Iraq.

Patti Posivio told the Sentinel her son was sent back into the field on April 30, and that the family didn’t expect they’d hear back from him until the end of May.

She said Posivio joined the Marines four years ago right out of high school, and that he was in his third tour of duty in Iraq. He was due to be discharged July 28.

The loss is the second in two years for the Posivio family. Robert Posivio’s younger brother, Daniel, 19, was killed in a car accident in July 2004 while on leave from the U.S. Navy.