Marine Staff Sgt. Danny P. Dupre

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Staff Sgt. Danny P. Dupre, 28, of Lockport, La.

SSgt. Dupre was assigned to 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died July 15, 2008 from wounds sustained while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq.

1/9 Marine killed in Anbar province

Staff report

A staff sergeant has been killed in combat in Iraq, Defense Department officials said Monday.

Staff Sgt. Danny P. Dupre, 28, of Lockport, La., was killed July 15 in Anbar province, military officials said. He was assigned to Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 1st Battalion, 9th Marines.

Dupre was shot while gathering intelligence for his squad in Ramadi, the Associated Press reported Sunday. He was hit behind the ear by a sniper’s bullet while on a classified mission, said the Daily Comet newspaper of Lafourche Parish, attributing the information to an anonymous Marine official.

Dupre served four overseas deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was scheduled to be buried on Monday.

His wife, Crystal, lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with their 3-year-old son, Daniel Dupre.

Daily Comet -- THIBODAUX -- A Marine Corps sergeant killed in Iraq came home Saturday to Lockport, where the grandparents who raised him along with other family members will lay him to rest.

Staff Sgt. Danny Dupre, 28, was on a classified mission Tuesday in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, a Marine Corps official said, when he was struck behind the ear by a sniper’s bullet.

"He was the glue that kept his squad together," said Gunnery Sgt. Damien Martin, a Marine deployed in New Orleans who knew Dupre during his 10-year career and who was in charge of escorting the fallen fighter’s remains in Louisiana. "Gaining intel to provide to his Marines was what got him killed."

Dupre grew up in Lockport, raised by his grandmother, Hilda Triche Dupre. While a student at Central Lafourche High School, he knew early on that he was headed for a military career. He was an active member of the school’s Junior ROTC and joined up immediately after graduation.

"He was a perfectionist," said Kenneth Dupre, the Marine’s "parrain," or godfather.

In drill competitions while performing the manual of arms, if there was a potential of a tied score, he would perform the drill routine blindfolded, Kenneth Dupre said.

"He knew right away he was going to be infantry," said Martin, who noted that Dupre’s first assignment was the Marine Corps’ elite silent-drill platoon. "He worked his way up through the ranks."

Dupre served four overseas deployments in Iraq as well as Afghanistan.

His wife, Crystal, lives in Jacksonville, Fla., with their 3-year-old son, Daniel Dupre.

The Marine’s own mother, Joycelyn Dupre, died at the age of 28 when he was very young, which is the reason, his grandmother said, that she raised him.

"He always loved the Marines," said Hilda Dupre, who made no secret over her bitterness when interviewed by telephone Saturday.

Asked if knowledge that he had died serving his country made coping with the loss more difficult or less difficult, she answered bluntly.

"It’s more difficult," she said. "If it wouldn’t have been for this damn president we have, he wouldn’t be there."

Kenneth Dupre said the family is balancing dissatisfaction with the extended war and the Marine’s love of corps and country.

"He died doing what he wanted to do, even though the rest of us or some of us don’t, … well, whatever, our opinions really don’t matter," Kenneth Dupre said. "He did what he wanted to do, and that’s how he lived his life. He wasn’t afraid of anything and he loved serving his country."

Visitation will be from 5 to 10 p.m. today at Falgout Funeral Home in Lockport and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Holy Savior Catholic Church in Lockport.

Dupre will be laid to rest with full military honors in the church cemetery.

Marine Staff Sgt. Danny P. Dupre was killed in action on 7/15/08.