FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) - A Marine corporal who was born in Montana is among those killed in Iraq during the military assault on the city of Fallujah.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Nathan Raymond Wood, 19, of Kirkland, Wash., a member of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Expeditionary force, Lima Company, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., was killed Tuesday.
His parents, Rex and DeEtte Wood of Kirkland, were notified shortly after hearing that their son's best friend had been wounded in the same military action.
''We've heard through our network of friends with other kids over there that it's the worst, a slaughterhouse. It's pretty fierce,'' said Bill Olson of Bothell, an uncle of the dead Marine.
''Anybody who has kids over there now, our prayers are with them,'' Olson said. ''We're very proud of the soldiers and Marines and the sacrifices they are making, but we can't really say we support the war.''
Wood was born in Great Falls and attended elementary and middle school there.
The Woods still have family members in north-central Montana, including Nathan Wood's great-aunts Virginia McDaniel of Havre and Joyce Temple of Chester, McDaniel said Thursday.
Wood joined the Marines out of Juanita High School with some friends, partly to obtain benefits for college but also to challenge himself, Olson said.
In his last e-mail to the family last week,'' he said to keep an eye out for things on TV. He mentioned a railroad station but couldn't say much because of security,'' the uncle said.
When the family heard that the Fallujah railroad station was secured by U.S. and Iraqi forces on Monday, ''we thought he was safe,'' Olson said.
Funeral plans were pending.
