"In five months of sustained combat operations, these men endured temperature extremes from blistering hot to freezing cold. With little or no sleep and constantly on the move, they endured ambushes, rocket and mortar attacks, suicide vehicle attacks, (improvised explosive devices) and land mines, and some of the most brutal and bloody urban combat in our Corps' history."

In all, 51 men who were assigned or attached to the battalion were killed, said Capt. Christopher M. Perrine.

The Marines deployed last July. In October, eight of them were killed in a car bombing. Another 11 died during the deployment, most of them in the Battle of Fallujah.

And in January, 26 Company C Marines and one sailor were killed in the crash of a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in western Iraq, the single largest loss of life of the war.

Cannons were used to fire off a 21-gun salute at yesterday's Welcome Home & Reunion Ceremony. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The most solemn moment came when the names of 51 men were read in the order of their passing.

The family of the last Marine to die — Lance Cpl. Sean Patrick Maher, 19 — watched the reading tearfully from the bleachers facing Dewey Field at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i.

Maher was killed on Feb. 2 when his Humvee came under enemy fire near Fallujah.

"He was outstanding," said Maher's dad, Daniel, who along with his wife, Janet, and daughter Katie, traveled from Grayslake, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, to attend the ceremonies and meet the men of his son's Weapons Company.

Katie and Daniel Maher, sister and father of Lance Cpl. Sean Patrick Maher, pass out photo montages to members of Weapons Company. Maher, who was killed Feb. 2 when his Humvee came under enemy fire near Fallujah, was the last 1st Battalion Marine to die in Iraq. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Maher also gave to his son's comrades photos from nine rolls of film recovered after Sean's death.

"It's sad," said Katie, 17. "We couldn't tell exactly what the photos are about. We wanted him to send them to us electronically. But he would never do it because he wanted to bring them home and explain them to us himself."

Sean's father said his son was the kind of person who'd give a total stranger the shirt off his back.

"He was very outgoing and very popular," said Maher. "He touched more lives in his 19 short years than some who are 70."

Maher's platoon leader, Lt. Geoffry Hollopeter, described the young leatherneck as the kind of Marine a buddy could count on no matter what.

"He blossomed hard," Hollopeter said. "He didn't go quietly at first. We like them like that. He developed into a first-rate Marine."

The ceremonies began with virtually the entire battalion marching onto Dewey Field at 2 p.m. Regimental commander Col. Jeffrey Patterson noted that only Marines would parade in formation in hot sunshine at an event honoring themselves.

"But the officers, the Marines and the sailors said they wanted to do that because they felt that by their marching out here they were paying tribute to the other 51 fallen comrades that marched into Iraq with them but who are not marching here today," Patterson said.

He described the Battle of Fallujah as "the turning point in the War on Terror."

"It's this battle more than any other battle that gave the Iraqi population the courage to stand up and say no to terror, and to go to the polls — 8 million of them."

Those who died in that battle, he said, gave their lives for a noble cause — to protect freedom.

Paraphrasing a quote by President Kennedy, Patterson said the Marines and sailors of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment exemplified the ideal that "we will pay any price, bear any burden, and reap hardship to support any friend or oppose any foe to ensure the survival and success of liberty."