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NEWS
DECEMBER 21, 2012
SIGNAL TRIBUNE
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Military personnel, community members and government officials attend the third annual ceremony remembering fallen U.S. soldiers from Long Beach hosted by 5th District City Councilmember Gerrie Schipske at the Rosie the Riveter Park and Interpretive Center.
Wreaths
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fested a love for God, family and country,” said Lankford, who added that MacPherson often prayed with his wife, Claudia, and his son, Brayden, every night when he came home from duty. Colonel Peter Kim, a Long Beach commander of the U.S. Army National Guard, said MacPherson, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2007, was a highly decorated soldier who led what his colleagues described as “daunting courage” and was known by his unit as “someone who never hesitated to take charge in firefights and who laid down his life protecting his comrades.” According to a statement form the U.S. Army’s special operations command, MacPherson was leading an assault against an enemy position when
he was mortally wounded by small arms fire in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan. For more than four years, MacPherson served as a mortarman and a ranger team leader with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment of Joint Base Lewis in McChord, Washington. MacPherson is survived by his wife and son of Tacoma, Washington and his parents, Troy and Diona, of Long Beach who attended a simultaneous memorial ceremony in Washington. MacPherson is also surby his paternal vived grandparents, Donna and Raymond MacPherson and his maternal grandparents Patricia and Robert Tanner, who were expected to attend the ceremony in Long Beach. MORE INFORMATION lbhometownheroes.com wreathsacrossamerica.org
A “hometown heroes” banner honoring Sgt. Thomas R. MacPherson, who died in combat in Afghanistan, is the latest banner that now hangs at the entrance of the Rosie the Riveter Park and Interpretive Center.
Sgt. Thomas R. MacPherson
Courtesy U.S. Army