Indiana Marine killed in Iraq

A Marine from northern Indiana who was killed in what the Pentagon described as an Iraqi ambush knew going into the war that he and other Americans troops could face such tactics, his father said Tuesday.\nU.S. officials say Lance Cpl. David Fribley was among nine Marines killed Sunday when an Iraqi unit indicated it was giving up, then opened fire when the Marines approached near An Nasiriyah, about 230 miles southwest of Baghdad.\n"We had talked about this long before this started that something like this might happen," Garry Fribley said from the family's home in Atwood, just outside Warsaw.\n"That's part of war. People better wake up. There are no rules in war ... It's time to take the gloves off. We're so intent on being the nice guys, and they (Iraqi soldiers) are not going to abide by anything. That's what happened to us in Vietnam.\n"I just hope (President) Bush takes the gloves off."\nDavid Fribley, 26, was a top athlete at Warsaw Community High School in Warsaw, about 40 miles west of Fort Wayne, and an Indiana State University graduate.\nIn high school, he lettered for four years in both football and track and field, in which he competed in the shot put and discus, his father said. He graduated in 1996, and went on to compete in track at Indiana State, where he graduated in 2001.\nFribley then moved to the Fort Myers, Fla., area, where he worked for about a year as the recreation coordinator at a retirement complex, his father said.\nHe eventually decided to enlist in the Marines, spurred in part by anger over the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks.\n"I think 9-11 had a lot to do with it," his father said.\nFribley, who was single, was listed by the Pentagon as living in Lee, Fla. He was stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, continuing a family military legacy. Several relatives served in World War II and the Korean War, his father said.\nMilitary life proved a good fit, his father said.\n"He had no problem," Garry Fribley said. "He knew what it was going to be like going in, and it was everything he thought it would be."\nDave Fulkerson, Warsaw's athletic director, said Fribley was an outstanding leader while in school.\n"I've been here 21 years and I cannot think of any kid who worked harder, both on the field and in the classroom," Fulkerson told the Times-Union for a story Tuesday. "He was a great individual. It's just a tragic loss to his parents, the high school and our entire community."\nThree others from Indiana have been killed while on military assignments in the Middle East since the 2001 terrorist attacks.