Army Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero

Remember Our Heroes

Army Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero, 23, of Miami

Pfc. Ferrero was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash; died Nov. 18, 2007 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated during a mounted patrol. Also killed were Cpl. Jason T. Lee and Cpl. Christopher J. Nelson.

Miami Herald -- Knowing he was headed for Iraq before the holidays, 23-year-old Army Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving early this year.

So his widowed mother, only brother and grandmother sat around a table at their Miami home and shared a large stuffed turkey, ham and cranberry sauce.

The feast would be Ferrero's last with family.

Days later, the man nicknamed ''Bolo'' as a boy would be dead, the victim of a roadside bomb in Iraq, according to a short statement issued Tuesday by the Defense Department. ''He wanted us to give him a Thanksgiving dinner, and it seemed like it was a farewell,'' Ferrero's mother, Maribel Rita Ferrero, told The Miami Herald. ``Sometimes you get a feeling.''

Details were few, but Ferrero -- who had been in Iraq just four days -- was apparently on patrol with two other soldiers in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, on Sunday when an ''improvised explosive device'' blew up, killing all three men. The other soldiers were also in their 20s and came from small towns in Michigan and Washington state.

Born into a Cuban family in Miami, Ferrero grew up a fan of rap and rock music, and he loved watching movies. Among his favorites was Scarface, a famous 1983 film starring Al Pacino.

His grandparents helped raise Ferrero and his older brother after the boys' father died of brain hemorrhage in 1992. Ferrero was just 8 years old.

Ferrero's grandfather, Manuel Teodorico Ferrero, would prove to be the most influential person in the young boy's life. The elder Ferrero had served in the Cuban military before Fidel Castro took over the island country.

As a teen, Ferrero became interested in the military, joining the Civil Air Patrol as a student in middle school. At Miami Coral Park Senior High School, he joined the Army ROTC.

After graduating in 2002, Ferrero worked a series of retail and restaurant jobs and studied computer systems at the ITT Technical Institute. He dropped out and signed up for the Army late last year.

His mother was proud, she said, because he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather.

''It was in his blood,'' she said.

Ferrero was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Wash.

His older brother, Manny, 26, remembers Ferrero left home for boot camp as a boy and returned to Miami as a man. The two brothers also grew closer to each other.

In October, shortly before Ferrero was supposed to head off to Iraq for his first tour of duty, he got news that his grandfather had died.

Returning to Miami for the funeral, Ferrero immediately suggested to his family that they celebrate Thanksgiving while he was on leave.

That gave Manny an eerie feeling about his younger brother's fate.

He recalled his younger brother had left him his most prized possession: a collection of more than 200 DVDs -- including his favorite one, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- and his PlayStation. Ferrero also left his MySpace.com password on his brother's computer.

''There were signs everywhere that he wasn't coming back,'' he said.

Army Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero was killed in action on 11/18/07.