Kaneohe Marine
killed in Iraq

The Texas native's unit arrived
in the country in October

Sixteen Kaneohe Marines have died in Iraq this year, the latest being Lance Cpl. Franklin A. Sweger, who was killed Thursday while fighting in Al Anbar province.

His mother, Susie Hernandez, told the Associated Press that her son was depressed when he first arrived in Iraq three or four months ago.

However, Sweger, 24, of San Antonio, Texas, was more upbeat when he last talked to his family by phone two weeks ago.

"Everything's OK, mom, don't worry about me," she recalled him saying. "I think I'm going to make it."

Sweger was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, which left Kaneohe in July in what was supposed to be a seven-month training deployment to Okinawa.

Instead, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which the 1st Battalion is assigned to, received orders in August to reinforce the U.S. force in Iraq. The unit arrived in Iraq in October and was part of the major house-to-house battles in Fallujah at the end of last month.

Sweger was the 51st person with Hawaii ties to die in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Of the 37 deaths in Iraq, 16 of them were Marines and 12 came from Schofield Barracks' 25th Infantry Division.

Hernandez said her son joined the Marines in April 2001 after having trouble in his first semester at Lamar University. He wanted to go back to school to study chemistry after completing his military obligations, she said.

"He loved science," she said.

"He studied chemistry and everything on his own since he was little. He wrote down all the definitions for everything."

Sweger was assigned to Kaneohe Bay's 1st Battalion in January 2002.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by his stepfather, his father and stepmother, and two stepbrothers.

"He was always making everybody laugh," Hernandez said. "He loved everybody. He was just so full of love and laughter and joy."