Riverside Marine killed at vehicle checkpoint
Cpl. Derek C. Dixon will be buried with full military honors, his grandmother says.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Marine Cpl. Derek C. Dixon, 20, of Riverside, who was killed in Iraq on Tuesday, was shot while he was working at a vehicle checkpoint in the city of Saqlawiyah.
The round entered under his left arm above his armored vest and went into his chest, said Marine Maj. David Slack, spokesman for the Dayton-based Marine Reserve's Military Police Company C. A casualty call officer with the unit notified Dixon's family of his death in western Iraq.
Extras
Dixon's body is expected to arrive Saturday at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, according to a Marine Corps news release.
Dixon's grandmother, Glenda Brightman of Riverside, said he will be buried with full military honors.
"He was so proud of what he did," she said.
Arrangements are pending at Newcomer Funeral Home and Crematory, 4104 Needmore Road.
Dixon was a member of the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expediitionary Force, based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.
He graduated from the Military Careers Academy at the Mound Street Academies charter school in Dayton in 2005.
He had joined the Marine Corps in 2004 and was trained as an information systems specialist.
Brightman said he came home from Camp Lejeune on March 15 and left for Iraq on March 25.



