Tarryl Hill
Private First Class, U.S. Marines Reserves
October 31, 1987 – February 7, 2007
Age – 19
Shelby Township, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Marine Forces Reserve’s 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Mt. Clemens, MI
Killed by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in Fallujiah, 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.
Tarryl was a smart little kid who was raised by his grandparents since he was eight weeks old. His grandfather said Tarryl’s grades were pretty good; about a B average. He was a boy and you had to stay on him to get them to get in the books. He was out front. He knew how to lead.
He enlisted with his cousin Stephen went in together which his grandfather didn’t like. The War was going on and he knew it was a possibility they would go. But, at graduation, when they marched onto the field, it was something to see. It was the most beautiful thing and he hadn’t seen anything like that in his life. He was looking at hundreds of young men and every step they made was in unison.
It is something that will be with him for the rest of his life, seeing him graduate and they all thought so much of him. As he was shipping out, his grandfather went to see him and Tarryl held him so tight he could hardly breathe. He said he may not come back, but that he loved me and I was his daddy.
He was only over there a short time and he was gone. Roadside bomb.
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.