Colorado Springs – Friends stood before the flag-draped casket of Marine Cpl. Kyle Powell on Monday and remembered him as a man who was not born to follow or get out of the way.
Even on his last day alive, the blond-headed kid who grew up in Colorado Springs, became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School, was leading the way.
Powell, 21, was on foot in front of a convoy of six vehicles with Marines who were trying to extract fellow Marines from an area near Fallujah, Iraq, that was infested with enemies.
“He was always, always ready to go and lead from the front,” said Lt. Col. Wayne Sinclair, commander of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Powell and Cpl. Jose Galvan, 22, of San Antonio, Texas, were killed Nov. 4 when an improvised mine exploded near Fallujah.
“The finding of the improvised mine … saved the lives of five other Marines that were in the Humvee behind him as he was conducting the route sweep,” Sinclair told about 300 people at a memorial service at the Shrine of Remembrance in Colorado Springs.
“It brings to mind, John 15:13,” said Sinclair. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.”
Powell, who was on his third tour in Iraq, is at least the 38th Coloradan killed in the war, not including those stationed at Fort Carson. Since the war started in March 2003, 174 soldiers from Fort Carson have died.
A few days before Powell’s death, he saved another life, applying a tourniquet to a Marine and firing his weapon at the enemy until the Marine could be rescued, Sinclair said.
During his second tour, Powell received the Navy Achievement Medal for a bunker he designed and constructed that withstood several rocket-propelled grenades, preventing the injury of Marines inside.
On Monday, after a 21-gun salute and the mournful playing of taps, Sinclair presented Powell’s parents, David and Nancy Powell, who are both retired Army officers, a posthumous Purple Heart and two folded American flags.
Jerry Limoge, who knew Powell through Boy Scouts, said the young Scout like to blow things up. He made smoke bombs, and when he became bored with them, added white gas – Coleman fuel.
Once, while building a tower near Burlington to earn a Boy Scout badge, Powell became enraged when the structure fell. Quickly realizing the need for an attitude adjustment, Powell began to laugh uncontrollably, Limoge said.
“He started laughing so hard at himself that all the other Scouts – it was contagious – they all started rolling on the ground laughing. They got a hold of themselves and put the tower back together,” he said.
At Cheyenne Mountain high, Loren Hellem, now 21, was a lonely freshman who had no friends when he met Powell.
“He taught me to enjoy the moment,” Hellem said. “I remember all of these wonderful times, these crazy weekends. He really did enjoy blowing things up. I remember all of us going out and one thing Kyle certainly taught me was to watch out for police whenever we were driving … Even though he is not here in body, he will always be in spirit.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
