Kaneohe Marine dies
fighting in Afghanistan

The 22-year-old is killed by
insurgents holed up in a cave

A Kaneohe Marine was killed in combat in Afghanistan on Sunday.

Richard P. Schoener: The corporal from Louisiana was assigned to Company K , 3rd Battalion

Cpl. Richard P. Schoener, 22, was one of two Marines killed in a battle with insurgents who were holed up in a cave. The Marines were killed as their squad was clearing the cave.

Schoener is the first Kaneohe Marine killed in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has not released the name of the other Marine.

News reports also said that 23 insurgents were killed in a five-hour battle in Alisang in eastern Afghanistan. The battle began when a Marine unit checked on a tip about insurgents operating in Laghman, an opium-producing area 60 miles east of the capital of Kabul.

Schoener, 22, was born in Pottsville, Pa., but his home of record is Hayes, La.

He was an infantry rifleman assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines.

The 900-member battalion deployed to Afghanistan on Nov. 11 and is due to be replaced by Kaneohe's 2nd Battalion in June.

A Texas TV station reported today that Schoener graduated with honors from Bell City High in Bell City, La., in 2001, and his principal, Reinette Guillory, said his loss is a great blow to the community.

Schoener's step-grandmother told another Texas TV station that his family had just returned home from a camping trip Sunday evening when three men in uniform showed up at their door.

Norma Breaux says the minute they saw them, they knew Schoener was dead.

A news release from Marine Corps Base Hawaii said Schoener is survived by his parents.

A total of 42 Kaneohe Marines and two Navy corpsmen from Pearl Harbor, who were part of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were killed during a seven-month deployment to Iraq that included the bloody battle for Fallujah.

The unit returned home last month, but is expected to deploy to Afghanistan before the end of the year.

Twenty-two soldiers, two sailors, 42 Marines and one civilian with Hawaii ties have been killed in Iraq since the war started in March 19, 2003. One soldier was killed in Kuwait last year. Thirteen of the soldiers were from the 25th Infantry Division based at Schofield Barracks.