Durant High grad dies in Iraq
He was a good son, a good brother and a good football player, friends say of the 21-year-old.
By AMBER MOBLEY
Published November 27, 2005
LITHIA - Ellen Delgado was alone at home at 6 a.m. Friday. Her family had left early to go shopping.
Then came a knock at the door. It was men in uniform. She knew what that meant.
"You know then when you see those uniforms that it's nothing else," said Delgado, mother of three sons, one serving in Iraq. "Still you pray that he just got wounded."
Her middle son, Pfc. Marc Delgado, 21, had been killed Thanksgiving Day in Baghdad when an explosive device flipped his vehicle into a canal, authorities said Saturday.
Marc Delgado was assigned to the Army's 170th Military Police Company, 504th Military Police Battalion, 42nd Military Police Brigade, based at Fort Lewis, Wash.
"I tried to talk him into joining the Navy," his mother said.
Marc Delgado's oldest brother, Eric, serves in the Navy.
"But he said he wanted to go into the Army like his pa-pa," Ellen Delgado said. Her father served in the Army.
Saturday afternoon, the phone at the Delgado home rang continuously with media calling for interviews and military personnel calling with condolences.
With each interview came more tears.
With each military call came more information, more accolades.
"That was his commander. He said he was proud to have Marc serve with him and he was proud of how he was working with the Iraqi police. He said he was truly a good soldier," Ellen Delgado said.
And Marc Delgado was a good son, a good brother and a good football player, said family members and friends.
Towering more than 6 feet and weighing 250 pounds, Marc Delgado was never too macho to hug his mother, said neighbor and family friend Julie Coggins.
Although he would sometimes pick on his 16-year-old brother, Bryce, Marc Delgado was the protective type. The two liked football and baseball and listened to the same kind of music.
Affectionately called the "O-line Ogre" by his Durant High School football teammates, Marc Delgado "worked really hard and always had a smile on his face," former coach David New said.
Marc Delgado was going to start military service right after graduating from Durant in 2003 but instead went through the Army's delayed entry program and began serving in March 2004.
"I think he was having second thoughts," Ellen Delgado said, "but he wouldn't have got in if he didn't want to serve his country."
And Marc Delgado was excited about serving.
In the first e-mail he sent his mom from Iraq, he told her: "We just got shot at and it was sooo cool."
"I was like, "Oh, my God, my son thinks he's invincible,"' Ellen Delgado said.
The last e-mail Marc Delgado sent was on Nov. 18.
"He said he was ready to come home," Ellen Delgado said.
Marc Delgado was driving the vehicle Thanksgiving Day when it ran over an improvised explosive device, or IED, in the road, Ellen Delgado said.
He and Staff Sgt. Steven C. Reynolds, 32, of Jordan, N.Y., died. "They didn't have a chance," Ellen Delgado said.
Two Iraqis - a translator and a senior Iraqi police officer - riding in the tank were also killed.
The vehicle's gunner lost her foot but survived and is coming home.
"Marc was usually the gunner," Ellen Delgado said.
Still, in the midst of the pain, the Delgados said they feel pride and purpose in Marc Delgado's sacrifice.
"I support the war. Even through all this," Ellen Delgado said through tears on Saturday.
"I was proud of him," said Bryce. "I support both of my brothers and all the people over there. This makes me support them even more."