Elias Torrez III
Profile
Age: 21
From: Veribest, Texas
Assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Incident: Marine Lance Cpl. Elias Torrez III was killed April 9 by hostile fire in Iraq.
Died: April 09, 2004
Putting it simply, Elias Torrez loved his life on the farm in West Texas. "He was funny. He could take a bad situation and make you laugh no matter what," said stepbrother Rigo Ramirez, 20. "He was a free soul. He had a zest for life." Lance Cpl. Torrez, 21, of Veribest, Texas, died April 9 in hostile fire in Iraq. He was based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and was on his second stint in Iraq, Ramirez said. Ramirez described Torrez as an easygoing, lovable guy with a lot of friends. Torrez graduated from high school in 2001 and started boot camp the day before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Ramirez said he last heard from his stepbrother a month before his death, when he left a message telling his father and stepmother that he loved them and everything...