Name: Marine 2nd Lt. Almar L. Fitzgerald Age: 23 From: Lexington, S.C. Assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif. attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) Incident: Marine 2nd Lt. Almar L. Fitzgerald died Feb. 21 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of wounds sustained Feb. 18 when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations against enemy forces in Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Cpl. Matt Conley. Died:
February
21, 2006 Memories of ‘Fitz’
By Christian Lowe
Marine Corps Times
Iraq was the last place I wanted to be on Christmas Eve. I felt pretty sure I wouldn’t see Santa flying across the starlit sky in this hellhole.
But then I quickly remembered not where I was, but whom I was with.
If the Marine next to me was going to suffer through a long, cold night in the cramped back seat of a Humvee, so would I. That’s what friends do, right?
I had first noticed him more than a year earlier, while photographer Rob Curtis and I were covering several young lieutenants for the Marine Corps Times documentary project “Class 186: The Making of a Marine Officer.”
He was a short, stocky African-American kid who seemed to know what he was doing in Officer Candidates School. I soon realized that he was more than just a hardheaded graduate of The Citadel — a school known for its rock-hard discipline. His deep smile told me that...
Prayers & Condolences For: Almar L. Fitzgerald BY DONNYDO on May 17, 2006
May Christ support us all the day long, till the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and holy rest and peace at the last.