Gary Sisco
April-8th-2003, 09:50 AM
Here's another example of what the numbers mean.
Turns out, very sadly, that the second Vermont KIA, Cpl Mark Evnin, USMC, was the son of a close family friend of Bronwyn and her mom, and the grandson of a longtime Burlington rabbi.
South Burlington Marine killed in Iraq
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer
Mark Evnin, 21, a Marine corporal from South Burlington, was killed Thursday in combat in Iraq.
He was a scout and sniper with the First Marine Division. He had shipped to Kuwait in February.
His mother, Mindy Evnin, said he died at 1 p.m. Iraq time after a firefight. She had no details of the fight other than that two other Marines were with him when he was shot in the abdomen.
She learned of his death when three Marines in dress blues came to her house Thursday evening.
"One of them came back today," she said Friday afternoon, "and they will help with the funeral arrangements."
"I want him buried in Burlington and with full military honors," she said. "He was proud to be a Marine, and I'm sure he died feeling that he was doing what he should do."
Evnin was an only child. His father, Michael, lives in Rockville, Md.
Evnin's grandfather, Max Wall, rabbi from 1946 to 1987 at Burlington's Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, said his grandson had wanted to be in the military since childhood.
"We thought it would be the Air Force," Wall said, "and then he told us it was the Marines. He was a person -- I don't know where he got it -- a person always concerned about peace and welfare. He had a social conscience. In his last letter, from Kuwait, he was talking about going into international relations when he got back, or possibly into intelligence or security services. He was definitely a patriot.
"He was not the most successful student," Wall added, "but he was a very successful grandson. We were very close."
Wall said Evnin called his mother Tuesday or Wednesday night, from the battlefield.
"Apparently," he said, "an embedded reporter let him use his cell phone. There are good people everywhere."
"He couldn't say where he was," Wall said, "and he was a stickler for that kind of discipline."
Rabbi Joshua Chasan of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, who knew Evnin since 1991, recalled him as "a thoughtful kid.
"He was the same kind of little boy as he was a man," Chasan said. "I saw him last August. He was so present, so present. He was a very gracious presence. He was an honorable young man.
"His death," Chasan said, "brings home painfully that what's going on is about far more than politics."
Evnin graduated from South Burlington High School in December 1999, his mother said, and a few weeks later was in Marine Boot Camp at Parris Island, S.C.
His high school remembered him Friday morning with a moment of silence, and Principal Patrick Burke had the flag lowered to half-staff.
"He was very well-liked by students and staff alike," Burke said of Evnin in a written statement. "Our thoughts are with his fellow Marines, his family and the SBHS Class of 2000."
Tim Comolli, who directs the school's imaging laboratory, said he remembered his former student "as family.
"Back when I was sick for two months, this was a kid who came by every day," he said. "When I was supposed to present at the Vermont Fest, Vermont's largest technical show for educators, he put together the kids' projects, video and animation projects, and then he went down to the Fest and made the presentation for me because I couldn't go.
"I remember him being there after school. He'd spend hours helping elementary and middle school kids with their projects. Technology was innate with him.
"He was about as kind and loving an individual as you'll ever meet," Comolli said. "He exuded it. He was just fundamentally a kind person.
"I've done my crying, but my tears are done now," he said. "When I think of him I smile. That's the kind of kid I remember. When Mark was in the room, everyone was happy."
"Mark had a definite sense of duty," said Travis Kehoe, Evnin's longtime friend and a member himself of the Vermont Air National Guard. "We always dreamed of the military, since we were little kids, running around playing soldier."
He said Evnin joined the Marines because "they were the most gung-ho.
"He'd never settle for second best," Kehoe said. "If he was going to do something, he wanted to be the best. He was pretty easy-going, but once he got his mind set on something, there was no stopping him."
Wall got a letter from his grandson, then in Kuwait, in February.
"He said he was sitting around doing nothing. He said they were trained to do whatever they had to do, and he couldn't wait. I wrote back and told him to be patient, and that was the last I heard from him.
"He was a good-looking young American with a million dreams and hopes," Wall said. "Now, they're cut short.
"But I can't look at the war now," he said. "Somehow I hope we can get out with some degree of a moral victory. Maybe in the future we can lead other nations to solving international problems in a peaceful fashion. To continue to pay these prices is terrible."
Reporter recalls Vermont corporal's last moments
By Geoffrey Gevalt
Free Press Staff Writer
Friday, the day after Mark Evnin of South Burlington died in a firefight in Iraq, the platoon commander told a reporter: "Mark did what Marines do. He died fighting for his country."
The reporter, John Koopman of the San Francisco Chronicle, was 15 feet away when Evnin was mortally wounded. In a satellite phone interview Saturday, Koopman said he thought Evnin's wound, though serious, wasn't life-threatening.
"I thought he was going to be OK. It looked bad, but I'd seen worse. I thought, 'That's too bad, but at least he's going home.' We joked about it later, how Mark was going to have sponge baths from the nurses that night."
But Evnin didn't make it. He died in the helicopter evacuating him to safety. He was 21.
"It was a shock. It was the first death in the battalion."
Evnin had two roles in the war. He drove the Humvee that carried Koopman and two other marines -- a sniper and the sergeant-major. Evnin also was the spotter for the sniper. He was there to spot the target, to gauge the distance and wind.
In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that was published in Saturday's Burlington Free Press, Koopman described the firefight encountered by Evnin's outfit, the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. He provided more detail Saturday.
The unit of 800 to 900 soldiers was heading toward Baghdad when it was hit with heavy enemy fire near Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Iraq's capital. It was 2 p.m., clear and hot.
The tanks led the procession that crossed over the Tigris River, followed by armored personnel carriers and then the Humvees.
"We had been sweeping down the road shooting at anything that resembled the enemy," Koopman said. "All of a sudden there was a whole bunch of enemy in there who started shooting.
"Mark got out and got on the hood of the Humvee with the sniper. The sergeant-major got out and saw there were bunkers that were fortified with sandbags. That was where a lot of the fire was coming from.
"The sergeant-major told Mark to get off the Humvee and fire one of the grenades at the bunker. Mark carried one of the grenade launchers an M-203 with him. The sergeant-major grabbed it and fired a couple of rounds so Mark could spot it. Mark couldn't see the bunker at first.
"Mark went over to a small clump of dirt to fire. He then moved behind the armored personnel carrier to reload. He was partly behind the APC and stepped out and fired again, but someone popped up between the bunker and Mark. I don't think he was aiming at Mark; he just sprayed the area with machine gun fire. Mark was hit and went down.
"The sergeant-major crawled to Mark to pull him to safety. He was sitting up, his head was moving around. He was talking to the corpsman and the sergeant-major. A Humvee came up to get him out. He seemed to be doing OK."
Later, word came back that Evnin was "stable." Then came the bad news: Evnin had died in the helicopter.
"It's always an ugly thing to have happen. I didn't know him very long; I'd only moved onto his Humvee about four or five days before the firefight. But Mark was a great guy. Folks told me he was a good Marine who always got the work done.
"Mark was one of those kids who really should have been in college, and he was intending to do that after he got out of the Marine Corps. He should have been in a frat house. He was bright. He was a good-looking guy who liked his Ray-Ban wrap-arounds.
"The guy was standing up there engaged in a full-scale battle and he got killed for it," Koopman added. "You write about people who get killed all the time, but when it happens to someone right next to you, who you know, it takes on a whole different meaning.
"He was a prime-of-life kid with a real bright future. That makes it doubly a shame."
Koopman sent his regrets to Evnin's family and said he wished he could have done more with the story of Evnin's death. But the battalion has been on the move; on Saturday it was a few miles outside of Baghdad.
Koopman did do one thing for Mark Evnin. Several days before his death, Koopman let Evnin use the newspaper's phone.
"Seems like the least I can do is invite people I know or people I feel just need to make a call."
So on Tuesday, with a little time to burn, Koopman let Evnin call home. He tried his girlfriend first but there was no answer so he left a message. Then he called his parents.
"I'm very glad that he was able to have that last phone call," Koopman said.
With that, Koopman had to sign off. It was midnight Iraq time.
"This has been a long time over here," he said. "I'm ready for this war to be over."
Turns out, very sadly, that the second Vermont KIA, Cpl Mark Evnin, USMC, was the son of a close family friend of Bronwyn and her mom, and the grandson of a longtime Burlington rabbi.
South Burlington Marine killed in Iraq
By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer
Mark Evnin, 21, a Marine corporal from South Burlington, was killed Thursday in combat in Iraq.
He was a scout and sniper with the First Marine Division. He had shipped to Kuwait in February.
His mother, Mindy Evnin, said he died at 1 p.m. Iraq time after a firefight. She had no details of the fight other than that two other Marines were with him when he was shot in the abdomen.
She learned of his death when three Marines in dress blues came to her house Thursday evening.
"One of them came back today," she said Friday afternoon, "and they will help with the funeral arrangements."
"I want him buried in Burlington and with full military honors," she said. "He was proud to be a Marine, and I'm sure he died feeling that he was doing what he should do."
Evnin was an only child. His father, Michael, lives in Rockville, Md.
Evnin's grandfather, Max Wall, rabbi from 1946 to 1987 at Burlington's Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, said his grandson had wanted to be in the military since childhood.
"We thought it would be the Air Force," Wall said, "and then he told us it was the Marines. He was a person -- I don't know where he got it -- a person always concerned about peace and welfare. He had a social conscience. In his last letter, from Kuwait, he was talking about going into international relations when he got back, or possibly into intelligence or security services. He was definitely a patriot.
"He was not the most successful student," Wall added, "but he was a very successful grandson. We were very close."
Wall said Evnin called his mother Tuesday or Wednesday night, from the battlefield.
"Apparently," he said, "an embedded reporter let him use his cell phone. There are good people everywhere."
"He couldn't say where he was," Wall said, "and he was a stickler for that kind of discipline."
Rabbi Joshua Chasan of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, who knew Evnin since 1991, recalled him as "a thoughtful kid.
"He was the same kind of little boy as he was a man," Chasan said. "I saw him last August. He was so present, so present. He was a very gracious presence. He was an honorable young man.
"His death," Chasan said, "brings home painfully that what's going on is about far more than politics."
Evnin graduated from South Burlington High School in December 1999, his mother said, and a few weeks later was in Marine Boot Camp at Parris Island, S.C.
His high school remembered him Friday morning with a moment of silence, and Principal Patrick Burke had the flag lowered to half-staff.
"He was very well-liked by students and staff alike," Burke said of Evnin in a written statement. "Our thoughts are with his fellow Marines, his family and the SBHS Class of 2000."
Tim Comolli, who directs the school's imaging laboratory, said he remembered his former student "as family.
"Back when I was sick for two months, this was a kid who came by every day," he said. "When I was supposed to present at the Vermont Fest, Vermont's largest technical show for educators, he put together the kids' projects, video and animation projects, and then he went down to the Fest and made the presentation for me because I couldn't go.
"I remember him being there after school. He'd spend hours helping elementary and middle school kids with their projects. Technology was innate with him.
"He was about as kind and loving an individual as you'll ever meet," Comolli said. "He exuded it. He was just fundamentally a kind person.
"I've done my crying, but my tears are done now," he said. "When I think of him I smile. That's the kind of kid I remember. When Mark was in the room, everyone was happy."
"Mark had a definite sense of duty," said Travis Kehoe, Evnin's longtime friend and a member himself of the Vermont Air National Guard. "We always dreamed of the military, since we were little kids, running around playing soldier."
He said Evnin joined the Marines because "they were the most gung-ho.
"He'd never settle for second best," Kehoe said. "If he was going to do something, he wanted to be the best. He was pretty easy-going, but once he got his mind set on something, there was no stopping him."
Wall got a letter from his grandson, then in Kuwait, in February.
"He said he was sitting around doing nothing. He said they were trained to do whatever they had to do, and he couldn't wait. I wrote back and told him to be patient, and that was the last I heard from him.
"He was a good-looking young American with a million dreams and hopes," Wall said. "Now, they're cut short.
"But I can't look at the war now," he said. "Somehow I hope we can get out with some degree of a moral victory. Maybe in the future we can lead other nations to solving international problems in a peaceful fashion. To continue to pay these prices is terrible."
Reporter recalls Vermont corporal's last moments
By Geoffrey Gevalt
Free Press Staff Writer
Friday, the day after Mark Evnin of South Burlington died in a firefight in Iraq, the platoon commander told a reporter: "Mark did what Marines do. He died fighting for his country."
The reporter, John Koopman of the San Francisco Chronicle, was 15 feet away when Evnin was mortally wounded. In a satellite phone interview Saturday, Koopman said he thought Evnin's wound, though serious, wasn't life-threatening.
"I thought he was going to be OK. It looked bad, but I'd seen worse. I thought, 'That's too bad, but at least he's going home.' We joked about it later, how Mark was going to have sponge baths from the nurses that night."
But Evnin didn't make it. He died in the helicopter evacuating him to safety. He was 21.
"It was a shock. It was the first death in the battalion."
Evnin had two roles in the war. He drove the Humvee that carried Koopman and two other marines -- a sniper and the sergeant-major. Evnin also was the spotter for the sniper. He was there to spot the target, to gauge the distance and wind.
In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that was published in Saturday's Burlington Free Press, Koopman described the firefight encountered by Evnin's outfit, the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines. He provided more detail Saturday.
The unit of 800 to 900 soldiers was heading toward Baghdad when it was hit with heavy enemy fire near Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Iraq's capital. It was 2 p.m., clear and hot.
The tanks led the procession that crossed over the Tigris River, followed by armored personnel carriers and then the Humvees.
"We had been sweeping down the road shooting at anything that resembled the enemy," Koopman said. "All of a sudden there was a whole bunch of enemy in there who started shooting.
"Mark got out and got on the hood of the Humvee with the sniper. The sergeant-major got out and saw there were bunkers that were fortified with sandbags. That was where a lot of the fire was coming from.
"The sergeant-major told Mark to get off the Humvee and fire one of the grenades at the bunker. Mark carried one of the grenade launchers an M-203 with him. The sergeant-major grabbed it and fired a couple of rounds so Mark could spot it. Mark couldn't see the bunker at first.
"Mark went over to a small clump of dirt to fire. He then moved behind the armored personnel carrier to reload. He was partly behind the APC and stepped out and fired again, but someone popped up between the bunker and Mark. I don't think he was aiming at Mark; he just sprayed the area with machine gun fire. Mark was hit and went down.
"The sergeant-major crawled to Mark to pull him to safety. He was sitting up, his head was moving around. He was talking to the corpsman and the sergeant-major. A Humvee came up to get him out. He seemed to be doing OK."
Later, word came back that Evnin was "stable." Then came the bad news: Evnin had died in the helicopter.
"It's always an ugly thing to have happen. I didn't know him very long; I'd only moved onto his Humvee about four or five days before the firefight. But Mark was a great guy. Folks told me he was a good Marine who always got the work done.
"Mark was one of those kids who really should have been in college, and he was intending to do that after he got out of the Marine Corps. He should have been in a frat house. He was bright. He was a good-looking guy who liked his Ray-Ban wrap-arounds.
"The guy was standing up there engaged in a full-scale battle and he got killed for it," Koopman added. "You write about people who get killed all the time, but when it happens to someone right next to you, who you know, it takes on a whole different meaning.
"He was a prime-of-life kid with a real bright future. That makes it doubly a shame."
Koopman sent his regrets to Evnin's family and said he wished he could have done more with the story of Evnin's death. But the battalion has been on the move; on Saturday it was a few miles outside of Baghdad.
Koopman did do one thing for Mark Evnin. Several days before his death, Koopman let Evnin use the newspaper's phone.
"Seems like the least I can do is invite people I know or people I feel just need to make a call."
So on Tuesday, with a little time to burn, Koopman let Evnin call home. He tried his girlfriend first but there was no answer so he left a message. Then he called his parents.
"I'm very glad that he was able to have that last phone call," Koopman said.
With that, Koopman had to sign off. It was midnight Iraq time.
"This has been a long time over here," he said. "I'm ready for this war to be over."