A letter from the uncle of the 6th Marine killed

"I believe it's OK to post it, because it's been distributed within a civilian support group for the military. I post it in order to honor the young man, and to let others read his words regarding his dedication and service, the enemy he faced, and his sense of the importance of his mission. The letter follows, with just a few words of personal infromation removed:

Monday evening around 8:00 PM I received news that my nephew was missing in action in Iraq. Tuesday at 12:00 O'clock my wife called to let me know that his body had been found. The short account of what happened is as follows: two US Marine scout sniper teams were ambushed near Heditha of which my nephew was leading one. He was able to escape and evade after the initial contact but his body was found depending on what reports you hear somewhere between 1 and 4 miles from the original point of contact. Five marines were killed at the point of contact and my nephew, found later, was number 6. There is now an investigation of the incident. Although there is no official word it appears as though there may have been infiltrators in the Iraqi police or defense forces that compromised their position. This was also widely reported in the news but there has been no official confirmation from the US military. At this time my brother's family has not yet received Jeff's body. They expect to receive it late this week or early next at which point I will take some time off. For those who do not know, my brother James Boskovitch, whose son was killed in Iraq, works at.... Jeff was 25 years old. I have attached a picture of him from Iraq that is our favorite. It is of a dog that his unit adopted and nicknamed "beans" because they bought him from the Iraqis for a handful of jellybeans.

My brother talked with all of us about Jeff's feelings on his service. I would like to share a short reflection of those so as to provide you some perspective. Jeff joined the Marine reserves when he entered college in June of 2000. His unit was activated in 2002 and after a short service in South America (Haiti and Columbia) was deployed to Iraq in January of 2005. Jeff was very proud of his service as a US Marine and he was very dedicated to his team and their mission. He believed very much in what he was doing and he felt that they were making a difference. He said that he could see it in the face of the people of Iraq. A week before this incident he called his father and told him that the Iraqi people were good people and that they were also being victimized by the terrorists. The foreign fighters he said were coming in from Syria, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. These foreigners he said were terrorizing the Iraqi population. They would move into neighborhoods and terrorize the population. Their methods included murder, torture, and rape and even the children were fair
game. Jeff was a beautiful young man with a heart of gold. Our family will miss
him terribly. I am telling you this not to in any way take sides in any
political debate but only to honor the service of a wonderful young man. There
are many others just like him.

Paul"

Found: http://war.redstate.org/