Blue to Gold: ARMY Staff Sgt Justin C Marquez

ARMY Staff Sgt Justin C Marquez, twenty-five, of Aberdeen, North Carolina, died October 6 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense says twenty-five year old Staff Sgt. Justin C. Marquez, of Aberdeen, was killed Saturday. He was on his first deployment.

Marquez was assigned to the 1st Special Forces Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg.

Friends and families said Marquez enjoyed skate boarding as a teenager before graduating from Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines and enlisting in the military. He shared his home with his parents and twin brother.

He and twnety-seven year old Warrant Officer Joseph L. Schiro of Coral Springs, Florida, were on patrol, in an area in Afghanistan's Wardak Province when the fatal shots were fired.

Reached by phone, Marquez's father praised his son. "He built his body up, built his mind up. He was clean and pure. He was a born warrior," said Dr. Mark Marquez. "He had that drive, determination, capacity to stick to something. He was tough, but had a real kind soul."

Marquez's parents are in Delaware to claim their son's body.