(Oklahoma City-AP) -- A Marine offered prayers today for his younger brother and fellow
Marine who has gone missing in Iraq.
Staff Sergeant Alfred Blair says his family is praying for Lance Corporal Thomas Blair's
safe return.
Thomas Blair of Broken Arrow and seven other Marines disappeared Sunday during fighting
near An Nasiriyah. A search and rescue mission is under way.
Blair joined the Marines after graduating from Broken Arrow High School in 1997. His
mother, Nancy Blair, lives outside Broken Arrow.
Another man with ties to Oklahoma was killed on Sunday.
Second Lieutenant Frederick Pokorney, who lived in Wynnewood from 1981 to 1987, was
killed by Iraqi soldiers who dressed in civilian clothes and pretended to surrender.
Pokorney's grandmother is Mary Huggans of Wynnewood, who says her grandson "loved
Oklahoma.''
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
> Town honors Nevada's first Iraq war casualty
> By Jace Radke
> <j...@lasvegassun.com>
> LAS VEGAS SUN
> TONOPAH -- More than 350 people gathered this morning at the high school in this high
desert town
> halfway between Las Vegas and Reno to remember an adopted son who was killed in Iraq.
> U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr. was one of at least nine Marines killed
Sunday in
> fighting near Nasiriyah, Iraq. He was Nevada's first casualty in the war, and the flag at
the state
> capitol was at half staff today in his honor.
> From the Pentagon this morning came word that Pokorney had been posthumously promoted to
first
> lieutenant, and in the Tonopah High School gym, where the 6-foot-7-inch Pokorney had played
center
> for the Tonopah Muckers basketball squad, the bleachers were filled. The town's students,
many
> wearing school jackets, sat alongside veterans in military uniforms. The crowd was clad in
red,
> white and blue.
> Two honor guards, Nye County sheriff's deputies and the Nevada Highway Patrol troopers, all
in dress
> uniforms, handled the solemn presentation of colors, and the Rev. Kenneth Curtis, pastor of
the
> Bellmont Church, traveled the 50 miles to Tonopah to reassure the grieving that everyone
would be
> reunited one day.
> The high school's principal, Barbara Floto, presented 31 roses -- one flower for each year
of
> Pokorney's life -- to former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke and his family. The Liesekes
had raised
> Pokorney as one of their own from the time Pokorney was 16 years old.
> "Fred died a hero, but he was always my hero," Lieseke said.
> Floto told the crowd that "this tragedy brought home to us a war that had only existed on
> television. Fred was one of us, one like you students of Tonopah High School. We have lost
one of
> our own and pay tribute to someone who will always be one of us."
> He was sitting in the front row of bleachers with his family. His daughter, Christina
Lieseke, was
> accompanied by her husband, Air Force Staff Sgt. Joe Uribe from Nellis Air Force Base, who
was in
> his blue dress uniform.
> Scott Rogers, 54, wore his green Marine uniform to the memorial. He retired from the Corps
in 1986
> after 20 years. A seven-year resident of Tonopah, he used to own a lounge in town and met
Pokorney
> when the young man was visiting while on leave.
> "In a town this small you meet everybody eventually," Rogers said.
> Tonopah's population is about 3,600.
> "When I heard that someone from Tonopah had been killed over there, my heart stopped,"
Rogers said.
> He knew that he would know the dead soldier, but his worst fears were for his own
22-year-old son,
> Jericho, a Marine with the 15th Expeditionary Force who has been in the region around Iraq
since
> January.
> Rogers said that he was relieved his son was not the one killed but that he was heartbroken
for
> Pokorney's family and loved ones.
> "I'm here today to support Fred Pokorney, my son and the Marine Corps," Rogers said.
> Rogers said he understood how hard it must have been for Lieseke to have been waiting and
wondering
> about Pokorney's fate.
> "We don't get much information from over there, and the letters are always two weeks
behind," Rogers
> said.
> This morning Lieseke carried in his breast pocket a letter that Pokorney had written to him
March 8.
> Lieseke didn't receive it until three days after Pokorney had been killed. In it, Pokorney
wrote of
> being anxious to get his job done and come home, and he fretted about missing his
daughter's
> birthday.
> The block lettering that Pokorney used was done carefully and precisely, Lieseke said.
"That was
> just like Fred," Lieseke said, remembering how Pokorney's perfectionism.
> Though 78 years old, Sandy Spicer, the commander of the VFW branch in Tonopah and a retired
> Esmerelda County deputy sheriff, handled the flag raising at the end of the ceremony with a
military
> precision that observers said would have made Pokorney proud. Bagpipes played "Amazing
Grace" as
> Spicer carried out his duties.
> "This is a town that really backs our troops and anyone who doesn't like it can stay the
hell out of
> Tonopah," Spicer said before the ceremony.
> A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Spicer has lived in Tonopah since 1968 and
got to know
> Pokorney at the Tonopah High School football games. Pokorney was a wide receiver and
defensive
> lineman for the team.
> "He was just a damn nice kid," Spicer said.
> Pokorney graduated from the school in 1989.
> Paper banners in the halls of his alma mater ask students to remember Pokorney and the
other
> soldiers fighting in Iraq. Those banners will likely be up for the rest of the school year.
The
> banners in the front hall of the school also note that 34 other Tonopah High School alumni
are
> serving in the military, and their names are listed.
> After the memorial, Erika Gutierrez, an 18-year-old Tonopah senior, said it had left her
saddened
> and "made me think so much. I didn't expect it to make me think so much. ... Now I will
think about
> it a little more."
> Nye County Sheriff Tony Demeo, a Vietnam veteran and Pahrump resident who was elected three
months
> ago, said Tonopah residents heard that there will be a war protest next week in Las Vegas
so they
> plan to have a candlelight vigil in their town as a counter to that.
> Nye County School Superintendent William Roberts, who served 22 years in the Army before
retiring as
> a lieutenant colonel in 1990, said that flags are at half staff at all schools in the
18,400 square
> miles of Nye County.
> "We each enjoy the freedoms earned by veterans," he told the assembly. "As you students go
about
> your activities in the classroom or on the athletic field I hope you remember what these
people did
> for you."
> Tonopah claims Pokorney as its own thanks to Lieseke and his wife, Suze, and after the
memorial the
> crowd lined up to offer the Liesekes condolences.
> A teenage girl in a Tonopah High School T-shirt told them that although she was too young
to have
> known Pokorney, she was grateful for his sacrifice.
> "Fred would have given the ceremony his stamp of approval," Wade Lieseke said. "He enjoyed
doing
> random acts of kindness when he wasn't being a tough Marine."
> He met Pokorney 15 years ago when Pokorney was dating his daughter. The 16-year-old had
moved from
> Southern California to Tonopah after his mother died. Soon after making the move the aunt
Pokorney
> was living with in Tonopah also passed away.
> Pokorney wanted to stay in Tonopah, about 220 miles northwest of Las Vegas, instead of
moving back
> to California with his biological father, and the Liesekes took him in.
> While in Tonopah Pokorney worked jobs as a waiter, dishwasher and cook at the now-closed
Mizpah
> Hotel.
> Pokorney joined the Marines soon after graduating from high school and attended Oregon
State
> University in Corvallis, Ore., where he graduated with a degree in military science,
Lieseke said.
> "I guess somebody with the Marines realized he was officer material and they sent him to
college,"
> Lieseke said. "Fred had character and integrity, and he was really an example of what a
Marine
> should be."
> Pokorney was assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd
Marine
> Expeditionary Brigade, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He lived in North Carolina with his
wife, Carolyn
> Rochelle, nicknamed Chelle, and 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Taylor.
> The Associated Press
> contributed to this story.
