{"id":444,"date":"2017-01-11T21:17:25","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T04:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deamaltzchallenge.com\/?p=444"},"modified":"2017-01-23T19:19:44","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T02:19:44","slug":"usmc-lcpl-donald-j-cline-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/11\/usmc-lcpl-donald-j-cline-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine LCpl Donald J. Cline Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bookmark<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Marine Lance Cpl. Donald J. Cline Jr.<\/h1>\n

Died March 23, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom<\/h2>\n
\n

21, of Washoe, Nev.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed in action near Nasiriyah on March 23. He was listed as missing until April 13, when the Defense Department announced his remains had been identified.* * * * *<\/p>\n

Widow dismayed that Sparks Marine\u2019 death in Iraq \u2018indeterminable\u2019<\/p>\n

Associated Press<\/p>\n

RENO, Nev. \u2014 A year after her husband was killed in one of the first battles in Iraq, Tina Cline has an 8-inch report on the battle that took his life, but few answers.<\/p>\n

Two Marines spent three hours with her on Saturday to discuss the report that she hoped would disclose the events one year ago last Tuesday that left her the widow of Lance Cpl. Donald J. Cline Jr.<\/p>\n

But after nearly one year of investigation, the cause of his death is \u201cindeterminable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s open still,\u201d Cline said. \u201cI\u2019m so sick of not being told the truth right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she was told was that her husband died a hero and will be awarded with a Bronze Star with a \u201cV\u201d for valor. Although the award was approved in January, she said the Marines told her the medals would be presented to her at a later date.<\/p>\n

The families of the 18 Marines killed in the An Nasiriyah battle were informed Saturday and Sunday of the investigations results, said Capt. Teresa Ovalle, spokeswoman for Camp Lejeune.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investigation took nearly a year in order to gather and fully consider all the facts and evidence to determine how Marines were killed and wounded that day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The report given to Cline included testimonies of the commanding officer and Marines who were present in the battle during the fourth day of the war.<\/p>\n

The commander said the convoy came under heavy fire.<\/p>\n

The crew chief in the amphibious vehicle traveling behind the vehicle Cline was in said, \u201cWe were on a four-lane road on the left side going south when C208 (Cline\u2019s armored vehicle) got hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a white flash and the track flew a foot and a half off the ground. The side blew out. Every one in the back flew out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tina Cline still can\u2019t understand why she hasn\u2019t received a copy of his autopsy or the personal belongings and charred fabric found at the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word closure, it bugs me, because I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever have closure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marine Lance Cpl. Donald J. Cline Jr. Died March 23, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom 21, of Washoe, Nev.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed in action near Nasiriyah on March 23. He was listed as missing until April 13, when the Defense Department announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017honorees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maltzchallenge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}