KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 3, 2003

Marines

Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams, 31

Phoenix, Ariz.

Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams, among a group of 2nd Expeditionary Brigade troops missing since March 23, was found dead Friday, March 28 near Nasiriyah.

Williams, a 60 mm mortar forward observer, apparently was caught in a sandstorm and lost radio communication, said his fiancee, Heather Strange of Phoenix.

Strange told The Washington Post the two met nearly four years ago but "were in denial" about their feelings for each other until Williams visited at Christmas while on leave from Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Williams proposed to Strange in an e-mail from his ship on the way to Kuwait, Strange told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution on Saturday.

Strange said her sister is married to Williams' brother, Joe, and their mothers, who are friends, set up both sets of siblings.

"It seemed so right, like it should have been happening all along," she said of their decision to marry. "But on Jan. 2, I had to say goodbye. I put him on a plane, and he deployed Jan. 11."

The last letter she received was dated March 8 from Kuwait. She learned he was missing March 26.

"Early Saturday morning I was writing him a letter at 2 a.m.," Strange said. "I didn't want to stop writing mail. I wanted him to know that even though he was missing, we were still loving him and missing him. And right then, there was a knock at my door."

She knew what it meant.

Thinking he wasn't doing enough with his life, Williams left the flooring business he and his brother started in Phoenix and enlisted in February 2001, Strange said.

Fellow Marines nicknamed him Omar, short for "Old Man River," because he was 10 years older than most in his unit.

Williams' father, Bob Pennington of Yuma, Ariz., said reminders of his son are everywhere.

"I was going through some of my son's things, and I found a big picture of an eagle superimposed over a flag, and it says on it 'Courage - Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it,'" Pennington told The Yuma Sun.

His son had that kind of courage, Pennington said.