About a thousand mourners packed a church in Antigo Monday for the funeral for a local Marine killed in Iraq.
Just three months ago, John Mattek wrote his family a letter to
opened only in the event of his death. That letter was read at St. John Catholic Church.
John wrote: ``Every man dies, not every man really lives. I have
lived.''
Reverend Jeremiah Worman told mourners that 24-year-old lance
corporal knew life had a purpose, a meaning and a goal. He was
proud of all he was.
Mattek died a week ago at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland
from injuries suffered in the June eighth explosion in Al Anbar
province.
He's the 39th Marine or soldier from Wisconsin to die since
fighting began in Iraq more than two years ago.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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