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Andrew Russoli: Strength, Honor |
| Andrew's Memoir | News & Record November 3 | News & Record October 22 |
News & Record, November 3, 2005
GREENSBORO - Strength and honor. They were the cornerstones of Lance Cpl. Andrew David Russoli's life.
They were the words that friends and family leaned on for support as they buried the young Marine on Wednesday afternoon.
Strength and honor also became the battle cry they headed home with, to help them face the world without the son, friend and warrior.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at College Park Baptist Church on Wednesday to honor Russoli, of Greensboro in a service that celebrated his individuality, his lifelong love of all things military and his devotion to his family and God.
Russoli was killed Oct. 20 during a roadside bomb attack in Nasser Wa Salaam, Iraq. The Rev. Michael Usey told the crowd that Russoli volunteered to investigate, with two other Marines, a tip that a bomb had been found in an open field.
When Russoli's vehicle approached the bomb, insurgents waiting nearby detonated it. Russoli and the two other Marines died instantly.
It was the 21-year-old's second tour of duty in Iraq. His parents, Sally White and Roland Russoli, were presented with a purple heart - the second their son was awarded - during Wednesday's service.
"Marines have always been the sharp end of the stick, but Andrew wanted to be on the very tip, the sharpened point," Usey told the crowd. "He lived the life he wanted to, and in that, he lived with courage and honor, and the more dangerous, the better.
"Too many of us drift through life, never choosing to live with courage. Not Andrew. He chose his life and lived it to the hilt."
The crowd laughed later as Usey recalled some of Russoli's childhood antics - doing reconnaissance in the back yard and searching for treasure during his pirate-themed birthday party.
They smiled as they looked at more than a dozen pictures of Russoli on the front of the bulletin handed out at the service - of Russoli as a newborn, as a diaper-clad tot playing in the pool, of Russoli carrying his Easter basket and in another, proudly showing off his Marine dress blues.
They watched in silence as a line of Marines tended to his family and casket. Later at the burial, they muffled tears as the men and women clad in dress blue uniforms saluted and taps echoed across the cemetery.
Many burst into sobs during the service as Russoli's father took the podium, and fighting his own tears, tried to help the crowd make sense of his son's death.
"We must honor him by the lives we lead. We must honor him by the people we help. We must honor him by the inspiration we offer to those who lose their way," Roland Russoli said.
"Our lives must provide a hope to a world that has lost a great hope."
Throughout the service, friends and family referred to the words strength and honor as the basis of a code by which they said Russoli lived.
Roland Russoli asked the crowd to carry the words with them through life.
"Honor and strength. It was the motto he lived by. It was the motto he died defending. It is a motto that could change the world," he said. "From this day, strength and honor in all we do."
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