 The Mercury News -- DETROIT - The father of a U.S. Marine from Michigan who lost his life in Iraq says serving his country was all his son ever wanted to do.
"I remember when he fell in the bath tub and cut his chin when he was 6 years old, and the only way I could get him to go to the hospital was to tell it was a MASH unit," Raymond Plouhar said of his son, Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar. "I'm proud that my son wanted to protect the freedom of this country whether we all agree with the war or not."
 The younger Plouhar, 30, died Monday of wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.
Plouhar, of Lake Orion, about 30 miles north of Detroit, was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
He signed up for the Marines immediately after graduating from Lake Orion High School, where he wrestled and played football, his father said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
The 57-year-old Plouhar said his son took four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Flint after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle.
During that time, the Marine was filmed as part of Michael Moore's 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," about the Bush administration's actions after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He appeared in a segment that showed recruiters going into underprivileged neighborhoods, but the elder Plouhar said his son didn't realize when he was filmed that it was for a movie critical of the war.
The 10-year Marine's sister and grandfather served in the Army. He had only 38 days left in Iraq and had been there a little over four months during his most recent tour, his family said.
"I'm devastated, sad and proud," Plouhar said of his only son. "This just makes me devoted even more to his belief that people need help in Iraq, and he felt that he was helping."
He said his son was teased a lot as a young kid and protected people as he grew up.
"He liked to protect the underdog," the father said. "All of his buddies from school called saying, `He was my friend when nobody else would be.'"
Plouhar, whose full name is Raymond James Bryon Anthony Charles Plouhar, graduated from Lake Orion High School and is survived by a wife and two children, ages 5 and 9, who live in Arizona.
The family plans to hold a funeral at Modetz Funeral Home in Lake Orion but has not set a date, the elder Plouhar said. The Marine's body was expected to be returned to Michigan early next week.
Despite his son's death, Plouhar said his views on the war are unchanged.
"We need to resolve the war," he said. "If we walk out now, my son died for nothing and that will make me mad." |
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