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Marine Dan McGuire, 19, was killed Thursday in Iraq while supporting combat operations in Anbar province.

By Eva Wolchover, Colneth Smiley Jr. and Renee Nadeau

Flags are flying at half-staff in Mashpee today as townspeople mourn the loss of native son Dan McGuire, 19, a Marine killed in Iraq on Thursday.
Friends and loved ones recalled a "brave, smart and kind" young man with a fierce love of his country, whose lifelong dream had been to follow in his grandfather's footsteps as a Marine.
"I'm very proud of my son and what he was doing," said Dan McGuire, 45, of Mashpee. "He went from high school straight into the Marine Corps. His grandfather was a Marine, and joining the Corps was a desire of his for a long time."
McGuire died while supporting combat operations in Anbar province.
The oldest of four brothers, McGuire graduated from Mashpee High School in 2007, where he took honors classes, played lacrosse, sang in the school choir and acted in plays. He was also an Eagle Scout.
McGuire's uncle, William McGuire, 42, described a young man who would "give you the shirt off his back," and once surprised his grandfather with a trip to see the Red Sox [team stats] play at Fenway Park [map].
"My father's grandfather was sitting in the seats where Ted Williams hit the farthest home run. So as a present to his grandfather, Daniel wrote the Red Sox and asked to sit in those seats. They invited the whole family to Fenway and put Daniel and my parents in the luxury box."
High school pal Selina Souza, 20, of Mashpee said McGuire "touched" many lives and "deserves to be remembered as a hero."
"He was brave, smart and kind, and didn't deserve to die so young," she said. "He could have accomplished a lot in his life had he been given the chance. It's a comfort to know that he died fighting for something he believed in."
Guidance counselor Janet Kraskouskas said McGuire wanted to be an elementery school teacher.
"I really pushed him to think about college first but we were at war and he really wanted to do this. He wanted to serve his country," she said. "He was very honorable, a kind, gentle spirit, quiet but with great strength. He would have been a fabulous teacher."
As an Eagle Scout, McGuire made flag cases for the local post office, town hall and the veteran's memorial where people could deposit old American flags for proper disposal. McGuire's pastor, Peter Axelson of Christ Chapel in Centerville, remembered "a quality young man who cared about his faith in the Lord and who was serving his country and proud to be doing it, and I believe proud to be serving the people of Iraq."

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Second Mashpee High Graduate Killed Overseas

BOSTON (WBZ) ― A second U.S. soldier who graduated from Mashpee High School was killed this week.

Army Pfc. Paul E. Conlon was killed in Afghanistan Friday, one day after a 2007 graduate was killed in Iraq.

Conlon, 21, was killed when a roadside bomb blew up the vehicle where he was serving as a gunner.

The family is holding a candlelight vigil in Conlon's memory on Monday at 8:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial across from the Mashpee Town Hall, his aunt, Victoria Baron said.

On Thursday, a second young man, 19-year-old Pfc. Daniel McGuire, was killed near Fallujah during an attack.

Read: Young Mashpee Marine Killed In Iraq

Conlon's mother, Maria Conlon, told the Cape Cod Times her son died instantaneously.

According to the newspaper, Conlon accepted a generous scholarship to Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. He began his tour of duty in Afghanistan in April.

http://wbztv.com/local/mashpee.high.school.2.796981.html

 

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Service on Saturday for Mashpee marine

MASHPEE, Mass. -- Friends and family on Cape Cod are honoring two young servicemen from Mashpee who died in Iraq and Afghanistan one day apart.
Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray also are among those expected to attend a memorial service this afternoon for 19-year-old Marine Pfc. Daniel McGuire, killed Aug. 14 in Iraq.
McGuire's service is being held at Christ Chapel in Centerville.
The body of 21-year-old Army Pfc. Paul Conlon, killed Aug. 15 in Afghanistan, was flown to the Cape yesterday with military honors.
A funeral Mass for Conlon will be Tuesday at Christ the King Parish in Mashpee.
Both servicemen will be buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne.
The town held a candlelight vigil for the Mashpee High School graduates on Monday night.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO85865/

 

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Town mourns 'superhero' serviceman

Photo by John Wilcox
Several hundred people turned out to Christ Chapel in Centerville yesterday to mourn Mashpee Marine Daniel McGuire, including his parents, Karen and Mark McGuire, and Kira Fallon.

CENTERVILLE - Hundreds of people crowded into a Cape Cod church yesterday to remember one of two Mashpee servicemen killed within a day of each other.
At 19, Marine Pfc. Daniel McGuire was a comic-book junkie who also happened to be a hero, "the real-life superhero you dreamed of being as a kid," his younger brother, Samuel, wrote in a letter read by the Rev. Thomas Crumb at Christ Chapel here.
"I always thought he was invincible, a small-town Superman, the big brother who would rip off his shirt, displaying a yellow 'S' on his chest, and shoot off into the sky," his brother wrote. "Well, I apparently saw him as the wrong superhero. He was Captain America, super soldier, patriot and the only superhero who could die."
Daniel McGuire, who graduated last year from Mashpee High School, was killed Aug. 14 in a small-arms fire attack in Iraq's Anbar province. The following day, Army Pfc. Paul Conlon, who graduated in 2005, was killed in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb destroyed his vehicle. A funeral Mass will be held for him Tuesday at Christ the King Church in Mashpee.
Yesterday, Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray listened as Samuel McGuire went on in his letter to describe his brother's dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher after the Marines.
"There will be too many 5-year-olds who won't know what they missed," he wrote. "He will always be loved and missed, and will always be the guy who couldn't die, even after he did in the physical world we live in. Well done, Dan. Rest in peace."
In a letter their other brother, Benjamin, wrote, he described a trip McGuire made to a nursing home, where he sat for an hour and a half, holding the hand of a deaf woman and praying for her.
"Looking back on his life, I can see the impact that he had on people," Benjamin wrote. "If you want to see the biggest impact, just look around. God used all he did to bring us together. Through all his crazy adventures, he was spinning a web. Now we can look around and see the fruits of his life. I look around and I don't see people who knew Dan, I see family."
Crumb remembered McGuire as the kind of young man who would shovel a neighbor's driveway without being asked and without telling him, who believed in promoting the welfare of the people of Iraq and whose final words to each of his family members in his last phone call home were "I love you."

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