Raul Mercado, Marines, Lance Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Raul Mercado, 21

Marines, Lance Corporal
Based: Camp Lejeune, N.C.
2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group,
II Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: January 7, 2006
Karmah (near Fallouja), Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Monrovia
High School: Monrovia High (Monrovia)
Burial: Buried near Guadalajara, Mexico

In 2004, Raul Mercado enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he hoped to garner enough recommendations from superiors to get into West Point.


"We tried to discourage him. He had so many other options," said Erica Lopez, a longtime family friend. "But his mind was made up."


Mercado was killed Jan. 7 when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle while on patrol near the village of Karmah, in the south of Iraq, near Basra. He was 21.

Mercado was assigned to the 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He had risen to the rank of lance corporal.

A funeral service was held Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Church in Monrovia, where Mayor Rob Hammond called Mercado "one of Monrovia's heroes." Mercado is the first serviceman from Monrovia to be killed in Iraq.

Read the entire LA Times article about Marines Lance Corporal Raul Mercado Raul Mercado here find remembrances at Fallen Heroes and read more about Lance Corporal Mercado here and here.