SPC James Beckstrand, 27, left, was so supportive of the military and its call to fight for the freedom of others that he re-enlisted a second time. After four years in the Marines, he took a brief retirement from the U.S. Government before joining the Army until his death five years later. His wife, Marilena, a native of Italy who recently became a U.S. citizen, said, “My husband wanted to retire with the military. In a letter he wrote to me during his first deployment, he said, ‘I cannot be any prouder of serving my country and fighting for the American values of freedom, independence and democracy.’ During all our conversations, he never changed his mind no matter what was happening.” He was killed on April 29, 2004 by a suicide car bomb while he was patrolling Baghdad and conducting surveillance.

• Mrs. Beckstrand, who still carries a light accent from her native Italy, wears a heart-shaped pendant engraved with the image of her late husband James, a wry smile under his floppy camouflage hat. The couple had been married for five months when Spc. Beckstrand shipped out for his second tour of Iraq. On April 29, 2004, he was searching the countryside south of Baghdad when a brown station wagon blew up next to the patrol. "I can assure you that your husband felt no pain," his commander, First Lt. Jared L. Vineyard, wrote to Mrs. Beckstrand. "Your loss is ours as well." Wall Street Journal 12/8/05

• Army Spec. James L. Beckstrand was in Iraq when he proposed marriage to his girlfriend via e-mail in March 2003. "It was very emotional," said Beckstrand's wife, Marilena. He wasted little time when he returned home from his first tour in Iraq last July. He purchased an engagement ring and gave it to his girlfriend the next day. They were married July 29.
  
  Beckstrand, 27, of Escondido, Calif., was on his second tour in Iraq when he was killed with seven other soldiers April 29 in a car bombing in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division from Baumholder, Germany.
  
  Beckstrand, who was raised by his divorced father, loved swimming in the ocean and dreamed of starting a family. "He said he wanted to be a dad like his dad was to him and not just a father, because anyone could be a father," his wife said.
  
  The couple met in Tennessee in 2001, when Beckstrand was stationed at nearby Ft. Campbell, Ky. Beckstrand joined the Marines after high school in 1995. After completing his four-year enlistment, he joined the Army. "He wanted to see the world," said his father, Lee. Chicago Tribune 7/24/04