Michael J Williams
Profile
Age: 31
From: Yuma, Ariz.
Assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Incident: Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams was killed in action near Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Died: March 23, 2003
Arizona native had as strong a will as physique
Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Williams was “a big teddy bear … big and strong” with strong opinions to match, his mother said after he was listed as missing in action in southern Iraq.
Early on March 29, she got official word that her 6-foot-4, 240-pound son was dead.
Officials said Williams, 31, died in a dawn ambush March 23 on the outskirts of Nasiriyah, an embattled town on the Euphrates River. His body was recovered March 28.
“Mike is with his Lord and in a much better place,” his mother, Sandy Watson of Peoria, Ariz., told The Arizona Republic.
Williams had a successful flooring business in his hometown of Phoenix when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks spurred him to quit and join the Marines. He said he wanted to make a difference in the world. He had dropped out of Deer Valley High School in suburban Phoenix, then earned his diploma as an adult and gone on to Glendale Community College.
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