Gentian Marku
Corporal, United States Marine Corps
September 17, 1982 – November 25, 2004
Age – 22
Warren, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp LeJeune, NC
Killed by enemy action in Anbar Province, Iraq
Cpl. Gentian Marku, 22 was an Albanian immigrant who arrived in the United States at 14. He joined the Marines in 2002 with hopes it would help him become a police office. Marku was a 2001 graduate of Warren Woods Tower High School.
”It makes me proud to be here and do something for both my countries,” he said in a Department of Defense profile in 2003 of his deployment to his homeland. “The best part of being a Marine is the honor associated with it. There are many out there who would like to call themselves ‘Marine,’ but few have the courage to try it.”
“I wrote him that week … I wonder if he got it. He died on my birthday,” said Dale Malesh, a police resource officer at the school. Marku said moving to America transformed him from a trouble-making teen to a respectful, responsible person.
“Everything changed when I got to the United States,” Marku said. “I started studying. I stayed out of trouble, and I got my first job as a busboy.” The Big Boy restaurant where Marku worked was frequented by police officers, and he always filled their glasses with water with a large smile. “His character was that he loved people and always seemed to be there to want to help. I feel proud to have been so close to him. He was a great kid and fine American.”
Marku had wanted to be a Warren police officer but could not do so until he was 21. He thought that joining the Marines might give him an advantage in the police academy, said Jere Green, a Warren police officer who is president of the Warren Woods School Board.
“He was a great kid,” Green said. “He was really proud to be a Marine.” “One of the things he’d always talk about was how thankful he was for America and all they did in all the years of strife in Eastern Europe,” school principal Robert Livernois. “I think he felt a pretty deep conviction to serve in our military.”
Marku’s father won the U.S. State Department’s Diversity Visa Lottery, an immigration program that allows randomly selected foreign applicants to migrate to the United States.
The Marines awarded him medals for good conduct, humanitarian service, combat action and other activities, according to the Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens.
The president of Albania awarded Marku with the Golden Medal of the Eagle. Albania’s government upon the proposal from the premier Fatos Nano, soldier Gentian Marku was declared a Martyr of his Homeland. He was 22. He was buried in his homeland.
Marku was remembered by a Marine brother as follows:
Thanksgiving will NEVER be the same for me. The 25th, 26th and 27th of 2003 were very difficult days for us all. The hug Gentian and I shared the day before he was killed was because we had just shared communion together and he was weeping over the loss of Brown and Gavriel. I would like to add to that a story of Gentian if you don’t mind.
I remember the light on his face when he was a young PFC on our first deployment with the 26th MEU. He served as the translator for the Battalion Commander (LtCol David Hough) and the MEU CO (COL Frick) when we went to Albania and did some training with their military. He was so proud to tell the CO all about his motherland. His shoulders were back and his walk was strong as he followed him around and translated in his mother tongue. He was a true Albanian through and through and I’ll never forget when I asked him where he would rather be, in the US or back in Albania. He told me that he was a Marine first and foremost. I had this conversation one evening while he was out at ASP Wolfe. He was on guard duty and I had the chance to talk to him for a bit. We had several of those kind of conversations. We talked about faith and we talked about women and we talked about service. I never walked away from them without learning something. He was prepared for heaven and helped other Marines around him to be ready as well. I will miss my friend Gentian and can’t wait until we can have more conversations when I get to heaven. I know he’ll give me another hug on that day.”
Chaplain Denis Cox, November 12, 2007 | Iwakuni, Japan