Brendon C Reiss
Profile
Age: 23
From: Natrona, Wyo.
Assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Incident: Marine Sgt. Brendon C. Reiss was killed in action near Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23.
Died: March 23, 2003
Brendon Reiss loved the water. As a high school student in Casper, Wyo., he’d play in a neighbor’s swimming pool until his skin was waterlogged. He stayed in the water until it got dark the night before he was to leave for boot camp.
A world away in Iraq, Reiss lost his life above the water of the Euphrates River. His Marine unit came under heavy fire while trying to secure a bridge near Nasiriyah.
Reiss, 23, had been listed as missing after the March 23 battle. The machine-gunner’s status was changed to killed in action after authorities identified his remains.
The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Reiss had been married for three years. His wife, Tensley, lives with family near Chattanooga, Tenn. He called her on their third anniversary, just weeks before he disappeared, family members said.
Officials told his relatives that Reiss was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the troop carrier he was in.
“I’m at peace with it,” said his mother, Angela Reiss of Casper