All 14 new casualties were based in Brook Park, a blue-collar Cleveland suburb of 21,000, according to Gunnery Sgt. Brad R. Lauer, public affairs chief. The battalion was activated in January and went to Iraq in March.
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The family of one of the dead, Lance Cpl. Jeff Boskovitch, met in the driveway of his father's Cuyahoga Falls home late Tuesday evening to remember him, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal reported.
"He had the biggest heart in the world. He was just a great kid," his uncle, Dan Boskovitch, told the newspaper. He said his nephew, had aspirations of pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Boskovitch was one of the five Marines killed on Monday in the northwestern Iraqi town of Haditha.
"You never know who it could be. It could be your best friend. It could be your husband — it could be anyone from here," Eleanor Matelski, 69, said as she angrily tore up a paper cup that held her morning coffee at a doughnut shop down the street from the battalion's headquarters.
"Tell Bush to get our soldiers out of there now before any more of our soldiers die. This is getting to be ridiculous," she said.
