Lima Company Family Forges Tragic Bond

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Their son was the first to die. On Mother's Day, he led a team of Marines to a house near the Iraqi-Syrian border. Cpl. Dustin Derga, the practical joker who wanted to be a fireman, tried kicking in the door. He was met with a spray of armor-piercing bullets from insurgents tucked in a crawl space beneath the floor.

That night, in Uniontown, Ohio, the men in uniform came to Bob and Marla Derga's door. Even in their own grief, they worried for Dustin's comrades back in
Iraq — the 160 or so men of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment

AP Photo: Major Christopher Warner, with the Inspector General Office for the State of Ohio, based in..

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