RIP Jennifer Parcell
In today’s Editor & Publisher there’s a story entitled, “Young Woman Meets Tragic End — No, It’s Not Anna Nicole.” Its point: The breathless media coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death means stories like the one below are shamefully overshadowed.
From the AP:
A 2004 graduate of Fallston High School wh o followed her older brother to the Marines was killed during fighting in Iraq, the Department of Defense said Thursday.
Cpl. Jennifer Parcell, 20, of Bel Air, Md. (reading a citation in the photo below) died Wednesday “while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province,” a Department of Defense news release said.
“If you knew her, you loved her. She was a go-getter. She knew what she wanted in life and she was doing what she had to do to achieve that,” Parcell’s aunt Martha Benton of Aberdeen said.
Parcell joined the Marine Corps in January 2005. Benton said she’d wanted to enlist since attending her brother Joseph’s graduation at Parris Island. The 24-year-old enlisted in February 2003 and he is returning from his tour to be with family.
The brother and sister were stationed together in Iraq for about a month before their tours of duty separated them, Benton said.
Math was her forte at Fallston High School in 2004, Benton said. She said Parcell always enjoyed the water, including boating and scuba diving.
She also liked yoga and music and spending time with family and friends.
Parcell was assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 3, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Okinawa, Japan. She had earned six medals and Benton said Marine Corps officials told the family Parcell may be eligible for a Purple Heart.
“We’re just going to miss her very, very much,” Benton said. “She was always someone you could count on.”
The family was notified of her death Wednesday afternoon.
Also Thursday, the family of a 21-year-old Navy paramedic from the Eastern Shore said he was killed when a Marine helicopter crashed in Iraq Wednesday.
Manuel Ruiz, of Federalsburg, was two weeks into his second tour of duty when the CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter he was riding in crashed, killing six other persons onboard.
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There’s no point to my putting this up other than to help ensure that anyone searching for “Jennifer Parcell” has a better chance of finding her. RIP, corporal.
gnomic says:
I can’t believe how celebrety “news” is actually considered news? I had the same thought - why is thei flustercluck end of a wasted life on every channel WHILE THERE IS A WAR ON?! Besides the pit that news has sunk too in order to get ratings, I also suspect that people don’t feel like thiere is anything they can do to change this adminstration’s hard on for killing people in the middle east. It’s not like our elected representatives are doing anything but wrining thier hands while our children are sent to die for no good reason.
But thats not news.