A Parkton native known for his football prowess and dedication to military service was killed in Iraq Wednesday when a suicide car bomber attacked his battalion.
Lance Cpl. Norman W. Anderson III, 21, was conducting operations in Karabilah to keep insurgents from crossing the Syrian border into western Iraq when he was killed, said Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division in Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Anderson was based.
The announcement of Anderson‘s death, made by the Pentagon late Thursday, caps an especially deadly week for Maryland servicemen. On Oct. 14 three reservists with the Maryland National Guard were killed in a convoy accident in Iraq, the first state guardsmen killed in duty overseas since World War II.
Anderson, a third-generation serviceman, was remembered by family as an energetic outdoorsman whose desire to become a Marine dated back to his early childhood. His father, Norman Jr., 48, was an Army Ranger and his grandfather served with the Navy.
“He wanted to be in the military since he knew what the military was,” said his mother, Robyn Anderson, 45.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anderson asked his mother to take him out of school so that he could enlist in the military, promising to get his GED later. She politely refused.
“I told him, ‘I’ll keep you as long as I can,'” she said.
His lifelong passion for all things military also made Anderson a self-taught history buff.
“He was drawn to the history of all the wars,” Robyn Anderson said. “He could tell you anything about Gettysburg, the Vietnam War, and World War I and II.”
Anderson married his high school sweetheart, Tori, in August. His mother said he proposed to Tori in May and wanted to marry her before he was deployed to Iraq. He also served a tour in Afghanistan, from which he returned in December 2004.
Robyn Anderson said her son was realistic about the possibility that he might not make it home once he left for Iraq.
“He said to me before he left, ‘Mom, remember this: if anything hap
Lance Cpl. Norman W. Anderson III, 21, was conducting operations in Karabilah to keep insurgents from crossing the Syrian border into western Iraq when he was killed, said Lt. Barry Edwards, a spokesman for the 2nd Marine Division in Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Anderson was based.
The announcement of Anderson‘s death, made by the Pentagon late Thursday, caps an especially deadly week for Maryland servicemen. On Oct. 14 three reservists with the Maryland National Guard were killed in a convoy accident in Iraq, the first state guardsmen killed in duty overseas since World War II.
Anderson, a third-generation serviceman, was remembered by family as an energetic outdoorsman whose desire to become a Marine dated back to his early childhood. His father, Norman Jr., 48, was an Army Ranger and his grandfather served with the Navy.
“He wanted to be in the military since he knew what the military was,” said his mother, Robyn Anderson, 45.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Anderson asked his mother to take him out of school so that he could enlist in the military, promising to get his GED later. She politely refused.
“I told him, ‘I’ll keep you as long as I can,'” she said.
His lifelong passion for all things military also made Anderson a self-taught history buff.
“He was drawn to the history of all the wars,” Robyn Anderson said. “He could tell you anything about Gettysburg, the Vietnam War, and World War I and II.”
Anderson married his high school sweetheart, Tori, in August. His mother said he proposed to Tori in May and wanted to marry her before he was deployed to Iraq. He also served a tour in Afghanistan, from which he returned in December 2004.
Robyn Anderson said her son was realistic about the possibility that he might not make it home once he left for Iraq.
“He said to me before he left, ‘Mom, remember this: if anything hap