Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht of Kerrville, Texas, the 1,000th American soldier killed in Afghanistan, would have turned 25 this July 4.
Jacob's father, Craig Leicht, told HuffPost last week that the family hadn't made major plans for Independence Day. "Yeah, we had our moments of sorrow, but that's what life is about -- standing up for what you believe in," he said. "We're not really, I guess, a weeping and gnashing-of-teeth kind of family. We're rejoicing in who Jacob was and what he stood for."
Jacob Leicht died May 27 when he stepped on a landmine in Helmand province. It was his second tour in a war zone -- he'd returned to combat after he'd been badly injured in Iraq during 2007. The Associated Press reported that Leicht "launched a campaign for himself at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, writing letters and making phone calls about returning to combat."
The Kerrville Daily Times reported that "Leicht fought through 18 surgeries to recover from his injuries in 2007 just to rejoin the his band of brothers fighting in Afghanistan. He could have taken a medical discharge and drawn disability payments for the rest of his life, but his character would not let him."
He'd been in Afghanistan less than a month when he died.
On Memorial Day, the people of Kerrville turned out to honor Jacob and show support for his family. "My heart goes out so much to this family and their loss of our American hero," said one woman interviewed by the the Daily Times, which produced a video of the day's events and also a video slideshow of the memorial service.
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