Sense of duty, determination link crash victims
<b><small>Several had sought to find right path<b></small><br><br>One was a recent graduate of Texas A&M University, a newlywed who told relatives he felt a commitment to serve his country. One told friendsTuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am
By:
News On 6
Several had sought to find right path
One was a recent graduate of Texas A&M University, a newlywed who told relatives he felt a commitment to serve his country. One told friends the service had turned his life around.
Six had been in the Marines a year or less; one was nearing his 10th anniversary. At least two planned to make careers in the Marines.
The youngest had just turned 19; the oldest was 28. Six were from Texas. One was from Oklahoma.
They were all in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and they all died Saturday night when a V-22 Osprey crashed during training exercises at an airfield near Tucson, Ariz.
Second Lt. Clayton J. Kennedy, 24, a platoon leader, had been married six months.
He grew up in Clifton, Texas, a small town about 35 miles northwest of Waco. Like his grandfather and father before him, he was a graduate of Texas A&M, earning a bachelor's degree in political science in 1998. He was a member of the Corps of Cadets and was commander of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band.
"He was so dedicated in everything he did," said Tom Henderson, a friend of Lt. Kennedy's family. "He felt a commitment to serve his country, and that is what he was going to do."
Lt. Kennedy was a 1994 graduate of Clifton High School, where he played football, basketball and baseball.
Richard Kennedy, his father, is a veterinarian. Celia Kennedy, his mother, teaches fourth grade. His younger brother and sister, Cliff and Cara, are students at Texas A&M.
Shari Kennedy, Lt. Kennedy's wife, is from San Antonio. They had been living in San Diego since their marriage Oct. 9.
Life hadn't been easy for 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Jorge A. Morin, but he had worked hard to fulfill his dream of becoming a Marine, his oldest brother, Larry Morin, said Monday from McAllen.
"He decided he wanted to make something of himself, and he was getting there," Mr. Morin said. "He was pushing really hard on it."
Cpl. Morin graduated from Nikki Rowe High School in McAllen, where he was an ROTC member. He was classified as an assaultman in the Marines.
The family had delayed telling Cpl. Morin that his mother had received a diagnosis of cancer last week.
"We didn't want to tell Jorge because when he is out in the field, he's got to have his mind clear," Larry Morin said. "I was going to let him know, but we never got to tell him."
Mr. Morin said his youngest brother was aware of the risks that came with the job but was "real excited" about the training mission.
"Before he left, he told me: 'We're guinea pigs, man. Things may or may not work,' " Mr. Morin said.
Pvt. Adam L. Tatro turned 19 last Tuesday. His sister, Misty Weldy, had called him several times to wish him a happy birthday, but she never reached him.
"I really wanted to tell him but never got the chance," she said Monday.
Pvt. Tatro, a Marine rifleman from Dell City, Texas, suffered some rough spots in life, Ms. Weldy said. He had lived with a foster family for a while and got into some minor scrapes. But he had developed a goal by last year: Graduate from high school and join the Marines.
He attended Early High School near Brownwood but fell two credits short of graduation.
Kevin Gabaree, principal of Early High School, said Mr. Tatro then enrolled at the self-paced Career Preparatory Academy at Brownwood High School and, as he worked toward graduation, signed a commitment with the Marines.
"He wanted to belong to something that meant a lot, and he wanted someone to look up to," said Staff Sgt. J.D. Huddleston, who helped recruit Mr. Tatro into the Marine Corps. "The day that I saw him graduate [from recruit training] in his dress blues, he was on Cloud Nine. There was nobody who was going to knock him down."
Sgt. Jose Alvarez, 28, a machine gunner, had joined the Marines on July 12, 1990, immediately after graduation from Uvalde High School.
School officials remembered him Monday as a good student, well-liked by faculty members and students.
Sgt. Alvarez was raised by his grandparents, Santos and Arminda Luna. After joining the Marines, he made a point of phoning his grandparents once a week, Mr. Luna said.
"He always called, just to see how we were and to let us know what he was doing," Mr. Luna said.
Sgt. Alvarez was married, and his wife and 5-year-old daughter live in California.
A high school dropout, Pfc. Alfred Corona, 23, of Uvalde had drifted for a few years until he got interested in joining the Marines, said his brother, Antonio Corona.
"He got his GED [General Educational Development] degree and took some courses at San Antonio College so he could get into the Marines," Antonio Corona said. "The Marines changed him, got him motivated. He told us it was the best thing he'd ever done."
Pfc. Corona joined the Marines on March 31, 1999. He was a machine gunner.
He is survived by his wife and a 5-year-old son.
Pfc. Kenneth O. Paddio, 20, a rifleman, had graduated from high school in Lafayette, La., in 1998, then returned to his native Houston, where he joined the Marines a little more than a year ago.
"He said he wanted to be a man, so he thought the Marines was going to make him a man," said his aunt Mary Edmond.
He liked to play basketball, video games, go to the movies and attend church, she said. In high school, Pfc. Paddio was active in ROTC.
He is survived by three brothers and a sister in Lafayette, La., and his mother, Ella Paddio of Houston.
Nearly a year ago, Pfc. Gabriel C. Clevenger of Picher, Okla., and four buddies decided on the spur of the moment to enlist in the Marine Corps.
Pfc. Clevenger, a machine gunner, saw it as a career choice.
His mother viewed it as a lifesaver.
"I was thankful," Mary Clevenger said. "I thought it would save his life" by helping him escape the growing pressure of drugs.
The 21-year-old preacher's son was known for his sense of humor and as a hard-working football player in the northeastern Oklahoma town of about 1,700 just three miles south of the Kansas border.
"Gabriel was pretty much a typical high school senior," said Bruce Chrz , principal at Picher-Cardin High School, where Pfc. Clevenger graduated in 1997.
Mr. Chrz said Pfc. Clevenger enrolled in the Picher-Cardin school after attending a Christian school operated by the nondenominational Tri-State Faith Center in nearby Cardin, a church pastored by his father, the Rev. Charles Clevenger.
Staff writers Brenda Rodriguez in Dallas and Arnold Hamilton in Oklahoma City, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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