Andrew J. Kilpela
Profile
Age: 22
From: Fowerville, Mich.
Assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Incident: Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew J. Kilpela was killed June 10 in an explosion while conducting combat operations in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. Also
Died: June 10, 2005
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Michigan Marine dies in Iraq
Associated Press
FOWLERVILLE, Mich. — A 22-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who joined the Marine Corps to prove he could get through boot camp died after a roadside bomb went off in Iraq, his father and brother said.
Lance Cpl. Andrew Kilpela of Fowlerville was assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineering Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Lejeune, and had been in Iraq since March. He’d been a Marine since 2003.
His family learned of the Friday death that night, the Lansing State Journal reported Monday.
His father, Michael Kilpela, said he used to get frustrated because he thought his son didn’t plan for the future, but his perspective has changed.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that he was a person who did not worry about tomorrow,” Michael Kilpela said. “He did not regret...