Brent E. Beeler
Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps Reserves
September 21, 1984 – December 7, 2006
Age – 22
Jackson, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Marine Forces Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Lansing, MI
Killed while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar, Iraq.
The second Gulf War lasted a little more than eight and a half years. In that time more than 4,400 service members lost their lives in combat.
But during a particularly brutal stretch between October of 2006 and February of 2007, 22 Marines from Selfridge Air National Guard Base were killed in action.
These Marines went there with the purest of intentions to serve in the cause of freedom and that’s what they did. And I just think it’s something that we have to do. I don’t want them to be forgotten.
Lance Cpl. Brent E. Beeler of Napoleon Township, Michigan was a 2002 graduate of Napoleon High School where he was a starting lineman on the football team. Teammates nicknamed him “Bayou Beeler” because of his redneck wild antics. He was one of the most aggressive kids the team had, which lent to him becoming a Marine. Beeler’s biggest love was football and as a 200-pounder, he started at offensive tackle and defensive end. He was the kind of kid who always had a smile on his face and always went a hundred miles an hour wherever he went, whatever he was doing, whether it was playing football or getting in trouble.
He loved the water and all motor sports and a big fan of dirt bikes, snowmobiles, trucks. Brent worked at Jackson Glassworks and enlisted in the Marines in 2005 because he wanted to be the best.