It's been more than four years since Linda Fribley's son was killed in an ambush with eight other Marines in Iraq.\nBut not a day goes by that she doesn't still think of him.\nWhen David K. Fribley, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal, died in combat March 23, 2004 he became the first Hoosier fatality in Iraq.\nAnd for Linda Fribley, 49, this grim milestone makes this Independence Day, and all other national holidays since he died, a lot more meaningful.\n"His death was an awakening for many people," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Atwood, Ind. "That's part of the reason that David was chosen. It awakened us to all the freedoms of choice that we get to have in everyday life. We're blessed here in the United States."\nDavid Fribley never wanted his military service to be a symbol, she said, but she hopes that his death can serve as a reminder to Hoosiers - and Americans everywhere - that above all, the U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq are working to make this country safer.\nAnd in some ways, the knowledge that her son was killed among his comrades, trying to make the world a better place to live, gives her some solace.\n"It would be so much harder to accept his death if it were a freak car accident," she said. "His death had a purpose and it had meaning."\nDavid Fribley was 26-years-old when he was killed. He grew up in tiny Atwood, Ind. - about 40 miles south east of South Bend. A graduate of Warsaw Community High School, he was a star athlete. He attended Indiana State University and threw shot put for the Sycamores. Fribley graduated in 2001 with a degree in recreation and sport management. He was already considering a career in the military before the Sept. 11 attacks, but the attacks steeled his resolve to become a Marine, Linda Fribley said.\nWhen the war began, Fribley received permission to attend officer school, but he postponed it so he could go to Iraq, she said.\n"He thought it was important," she said. "He was compelled to be there. He had to do that."\nLinda Fribley described her son as talkative and energetic.\n"He didn't like anybody not to be smiling. If you were unhappy he'd find a way to make you smile," she said.\nBut despite the years that have passed and the knowledge that her son died fighting for his country, the pain of David Fribley's loss still weighs heavily on his family, Linda Fribley said.\n"It hasn't subsided at all, you just learn to live with it," she said. "He was a major part of our lives, you just don't up and forget."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
