Seabee shot and killed at Keesler Air Force Base.

UPDATE

Officials tell news outlets that Builder Constructionman Grace Kayla Davis-Marcheschi died early Saturday morning at military housing belonging to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
The 23-year-old Davis-Marcheschi is originally from Oregon.

Navy: Seabee shot and killed in southern Mississippi

Associated Press
October 15, 2018

BILOXI, Miss. — The Navy says a sailor has been shot and killed in southern Mississippi. News outlets reported the shooting happened early Saturday morning at military housing belonging to Keesler Air Force Base. 

The shooting did not take place at Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport but the Seabee served there. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class George M. Bell/Navy)

Spokesman Brian Lamar said the dead sailor was assigned to the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport.
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Motorcycle Crash Claimed Life of Navy Seabee

Navy Seabee Identified As Victim Of Fatal Motorcycle Crash
Associated Press
Published: May 8, 2017

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) – A Navy Seabee stationed in Gulfport has been identified as the man who crashed his motorcycle on a state highway and died.

The Sun Herald reports that Harrison County Chief Deputy Brian Switzer says 27-year-old Jimmy Truong, of San Diego, lost control of the bike and went over an embankment on Saturday.

Authorities say he was wearing a helmet and protective gear.
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History takes on a whole new life inside funeral home

Veterans museum inside Dormi and Sons Funeral Home
Bronx Times
By Robert Wirsing

Community News Group / Robert Wirsing

Joseph Garofalo, curator, shares his WWII knowledge and personal

experiences to eager P.S. 108 students.

History takes on a whole new life inside one local funeral home.

John Dormi and Sons Funeral Home, at 1121 Morris Park Avenue, has one feature setting it apart from all others.

Inside the lobby are display cases housing various military artifacts hailing from all the WWII combatants. Joe Garofalo, 94, is the curator of this room-sized museum. A WWII veteran, Garofalo was a petty officer second class for the Navy’s Seabees attached to the fourth Marine Division. He fought and participated in three invasions in the South Pacific theater.

“I had good times and bad times,” shared Garofalo. “But some of my best times were in the service.”

On Friday, October 24, students from P.S. 108 visited this museum. Eagerly, they viewed each exhibit, carefully handled various military artifacts, and listened intently to real-life accounts from veterans. Garofalo; Albert Maza, WWII army civil core; and Jeremy Warneke; district manager of Community Board 11, an Iraq War veteran, shared their stories to the fifth graders who clung to every word and asked many questions throughout.
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Coins stolen from MOH Marvin Shields' grave replaced with love

On Marvin Shields' tombstone it says

"He died as he lived, for his friends"

Veterans replace stolen coins at war hero’s grave
KOMO News
By Mark Miller
Published: Aug 31, 2014

GARDINER, Wash. – At a small cemetery in the town of Gardiner, a wrong has been made right.

“I feel very honored, very blessed, very loved at this point in time,” said Joan Shields, as she looked at the headstone of the man she lost to the Vietnam War.

On Sunday, veterans held a ceremony to replace the special military coins that were stolen from Marvin G. Shields’ graveside earlier this month.

The fallen Navy Seabee posthumously received the Medal of Honor for saving many lives during a battle in Don Zoai, South Vietnam in 1965.

Shields was 25 years old when he volunteered to take out a Viet Cong machine gun nest. He fought while wounded, rescued another wounded soldier, and kept fighting for hours. Shields later died of a gunshot wound.

He was the first member of the Navy to earn the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

“I'm pretty sure he’s sitting up there, you know, just grinning. He's gotta be grinning,” said retired Seabee Bill Pletcher, who led the effort to replace the stolen coins, and hold a ceremony to honor Marvin Shields and his family.

Bill decided to do something after seeing a KOMO4News Problems Solvers report on the theft of three challenge coins from the headstone.
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