Thursday, November 02, 2006

Marine Cpl. Michael H. Lasky

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Cpl. Michael H. Lasky, 22, of Sterling, Alaska

Cpl. Lasky was assigned to the 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; killed Nov. 2 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq.

Alaska Marine dies on second tour of Iraq

By TATABOLINE BRANT
Anchorage Daily News

A 22-year-old Sterling man who grew up in Alaska and was on his second tour of duty in Iraq was killed in combat last week, leaving behind a wife and 1-year-old daughter, Liberty Lynn, who was born during his first tour.

Cpl. Michael H. Lasky is the third member of Alaska’s single, small Marine unit to die in Iraq since the war began in 2003. The other men killed were from Salcha and Anchorage.

Donn Lasky and his wife, Carol, learned of their son’s death early Friday, when a Suburban with a military team in it pulled into their long, private driveway in Soldotna around 1 a.m.

Donn Lasky said in a telephone interview Saturday that he woke up when the family’s dogs started barking. The two parents were grief-stricken when they looked outside and, at first, were reluctant to open the door. Donn said his wife broke down, repeating, “No, no, go away.”

“Last thing we wanted to see was a Marine standing there in front of our house,” Donn said.

Finally, Donn opened the door and asked the Marines who had come to do the notification to come back around 7 a.m., he said. The men didn’t deliver the news about Michael on that first visit, the family said. “They didn’t have to. We knew,” Donn said.

A prepared statement released Saturday by the Department of Defense said only that Lasky was killed “while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province.”

Lasky was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division at Elmendorf Air Force Base. Calls to the small unit’s offices in Anchorage on Saturday were not returned. The Lasky family moved to Alaska in the late 1970s. Donn Lasky was in the Navy then and was twice stationed at the now-defunct Adak naval base, on the Aleutian chain. Michael Lasky attended elementary school on the remote island before his family relocated to the Kenai Peninsula.

Marine Cpl. Michael H. Lasky was killed in action on 11/02/06.

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