Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
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    Mar 2007
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    Default Scranton Marine KIA

    i thought this was important to post here.

    http://www.wilknewsradio.com/pages/6...tentId=5623537

    Posted: Monday, 22 February 2010 10:30AM

    Scranton Marine, 19, Killed In War


    A Scranton teenager killed last week in Afghanistan is being remembered as a friendly youth and a proud Marine with a close-knit family.
    Military authorities say 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, of Scranton, died Thursday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Officials say he joined the Marine Corps after graduating Scranton High School in 2008 and had only been in the country for four months.

    Dominic Rodriguez, who had known Johnson since both were toddlers, describes him as a laid-back person who enjoyed hanging out with his buddies as they watched MTV. Scranton High principal Eric Schaeffer recalls him as a polite, friendly student who looked forward to joining the Marines.
    Johnson's funeral will be held either Thursday or Friday.

    i wanted to talk this kid. when i first saw the news, i didn't really connect to it, because i didn't know who it was. he looked familiar, but Scranton's not the biggest city in the world. it wasn't until i saw who his parents were that i realized that i knew this kid.

    his family were neighbors of mine, when i lived in Hilltop Manor. they lived across the way. i didn't really speak much to his parents, but i didn't speak much to anyone in that neighborhood. i did deal with this kid, though, on several occasions, and never for anything good. he was constantly stealing stuff from our porch, vandalizing the main office area, as well as people's cars, and the occasional petty theft. eventually, his parents had enough, and stopped letting him hang with his friends, all of whom now have some kind of criminal record. he did well in school, i hear, and became a normal teenage kid.

    they moved out of the neighborhood eventually. i ran into this kid, i'm assuming well before he shipped out. he remembered me, even without my dreadlocks, and said hello. we chatted for a bit. i asked about his parents, how were things, the usual chitchat. he told me that he was joining the Marines, and i praised him for that. this wasn't the kid that i caught breaking into my car anymore. this was a young man, who at a very early age decided, he was going to do things right. i don't see joining the Marines as something taken lightly, and i told him so. the act itself is an act of faith and courge. i thanked him, wished him well, and reminded him to keep his head down.

    i ran into his parents yesterday, at the laundromat. i was sitting outside, reading, when i saw his mother walking towards me. i introduced myself, and she remembered me. i conveyed my condolences to her and her husband, and we spoke, about living at Hilltop, about what a pain in the ass he was, and how he straightened out. after awhile, only she spoke. i listened.

    after a few minutes, and some tears, her daughter came out with the finished laundry. as she left, i told her that i was proud of her son, and i believe most people in this town felt the same.

    there's no real point to this, just something in my head just now. maybe i just wanted to say something for this boy, who was on his way to being a man, a boy i barely knew anything about, except that he was wise enough for his few years to know when he was messing up, and knew enough to change that. maybe he was a man already. isn't that what a man does?

    i'll never know, and neither will you.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    Rest easy Marine ... you have done your ultimate duty, you have honored your country, your family and yourself.

    You will NOT be forgotten! Every time the words "Semper Fi" (Semper Fidelis) are said you are remembered .. you are a part of a tradition that will never die.

    As much as I HATE the death of one brave soldier I have to honor the 'fallen' ... these children (and at my age they are children) have sacrificed everything and deserve every ounce of our respect!

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    RIP.

    My condolences to his friends and family.

  4. #4
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    Jun 2006
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    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    (Allegheny County)
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    My condolences to the family and friends of Cpl. Larry M. Johnson.

    "Having a gun and thinking you are armed is like having a piano and thinking you are a musician" Col. Jeff Cooper (U.S.M.C. Ret.)
    Speed is fine, Accuracy is final


  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
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    Scranton, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    Yeah, this sucked. He was a little smartass kid who got his head back on straight,the Marines made a fine man out of him, and then we lose everything that this man could have been to us while he's still just getting started.

    Let his sacrifice never be forgotten.
    "...a REPUBLIC, if you can keep it."

  6. #6
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    ✠ Ēǻζţ ŞŧЯǿŪđ§βũЯģ, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA



    R.I.P.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    Shelocta, Pennsylvania
    (Indiana County)
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    NRA life member/ILA/PVA/Whittington Center sponsor
    GOA member/Second Amendment Foundation member
    NAHC life member/KECA founding committee member

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
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    Scranton, Pennsylvania
    (Lackawanna County)
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    i went to school with him and chatted with him once or twice.. rest in peace

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    (Philadelphia County)
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    Default Re: Scranton Marine KIA

    Thank You and Godspeed Marine.

    Offering my family's prayers for strength and Deepest Condolences to his.

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