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Troops Shared Firm Belief in Iraq Service
Marine Cpl. Jennifer M. Parcell, shown reading a Medal of Honor citation on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, died Wednesday in Anbar province in what the Defense Department described as "supporting combat operations."
(Associated Press)
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He enlisted in the military because of the 2001 terrorist attacks and had recently been promoted to sergeant, his family said.
His elder stepbrother, Aaron Mallin, said Frazier's devotion to the cause was matched by a lifelong interest in stepping in to look after others.
When he was 18, he came home with a black eye. When his brother asked where the shiner had come from, Frazier said he had stepped into a quarrel when he'd seen a man hit a woman.
At home, he looked after his maternal grandmother, Elaine Tate, whom everyone knew as Meemaw. If she needed wood chopped, he did it. If her gutters were clogged, he cleaned them. When the nation was attacked, he felt he had to go.
"He is my little brother, and I idolized him," Mallin said. "It's supposed to be the other way around."
Frazier wanted to be a police officer after graduating from high school, but after Sept. 11, he decided he was going to join the Marines, Mallin said. His mother, Shelia Cutshall, tried to talk him out of it. So did Mallin. They told him not to make a rash decision in anger. They told him to wait a year.
Ten months later, Frazier told them he was still determined to become a Marine. His elder brother, who works for a defense contractor, also tried to persuade his brother to pursue jobs with the Marines that might reduce the risks of combat. But that was not for him.
"He wanted to be an infantryman. He wanted to be a grunt," Mallin said. In telephone calls and notes from Iraq, he expressed concern about the men in his unit with wives and children. "You got the sense that if he could, he would send them home," Mallin said. "He really was quite honorable and passionate about what he did."
Mallin said his younger brother was "fed up" by the mounting doubts expressed back home. After returning from a seven-month tour in April, he began lobbying to go back.
"He begged. He pleaded. He asked for transfers," Mallin said. "Everybody in the family wanted to talk him out of it. But they knew they couldn't."
His family said Frazier asked to be buried near family. A private funeral is to be held at the Montague Baptist Church in Dogue.
Mourners at Parcell's home yesterday declined to be quoted but remembered her as a loving and motivated woman who joined the Marines in 2005, following the path of her older brother Joseph.
The two served together in Iraq briefly before their assignments separated them. Joseph is returning from his tour to be with the family, people at the home said.
Parcell served with the Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan.
Staff researcher Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.
