Marines had
ominous contacts

Gregory Medina said his son, Marine Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, wrote of a foreboding in his letters home from Iraq.

Lance Cpl. David Branning

"He was scared. He said in the back of his mind he didn't think he was going to make it home," Medina said Sunday.

Tia Steele recalled a telephone conversation with her stepson, Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, last week.

After they'd said their goodbyes, Steele said, "It was like he didn't want to quit talking, but he couldn't say what was happening. He's a Marine, so he couldn't say he was scared ... but those guys came out of Hawaii. They didn't have any combat experience. None. I thought he was going to come out of it. And he didn't."

Branning, 21, of Baltimore, and Medina, 20, of Woodbridge, Va., died Friday in the fight for the terrorist stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq, the Pentagon said. Both Marines were single and are survived by their parents.

Both were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe. They were the 10th and 11th members of the unit killed in Iraq since it arrived there last month.

Since the March 2003 start of the war in Iraq, 37 servicemen and women with Hawaii ties have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Brian Medina

It was Brian Medina's conviction that terrorist camps existed in Iraq prior to the war, Gregory Medina said.

"He said he was sitting in a former terrorist camp writing me a letter," said Medina, a retired Navy Seabee.

Brian Medina's last phone call home was Nov. 3, his father said.

"He said they belong there. There's nobody there who wants to go home," Medina said. "He called home as much as he could."

Brian Medina enlisted in August 2002 and was assigned to Kaneohe in January.

"We're very sad," Megan Branning, a cousin of David Branning's, said Sunday. "The war in Iraq has hit close to home in our family."

"He was wonderful," said Steele. "I keep telling people, I hope everyone has a chance to love and be loved as I was by David. He was an old soul. He had a curiosity. That's one of the reasons he decided to join the Marines. He wanted to see things, to find out about the world beyond Baltimore."

Steele said Branning grew up in Baltimore, enlisting in the Marines in 2002, a year after graduating from Dulaney High School in Baltimore County. He came to Hawaii in November 2002 where he picked up hobbies including surfing, sky diving and rock climbing. Back home, his family was optimistic that he might avoid combat, Steele said.

Steele said she talked to Branning a week ago.

"He called and said, 'You're going to hear on the news that eight Marines were killed in my company, but I'm OK.'"

A memorial service for Branning in the Baltimore area was being planned for Dec. 4.

An all-out assault on Fallujah began Nov. 8 as U.S.-led forces sought to hunt down terrorists while the country prepares for crucial elections on Jan. 31.

In Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military's assault of Fallujah had gone more quickly than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days of fighting, said Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, who planned the operation.

The military said Sunday at least 38 Americans and six Iraqi soldiers had been killed during the Fallujah assault. Earlier, U.S. commanders said more than 1,200 terrorists had been killed since the siege began.