Marine Lance Cpl. David M. Branning told his stepmother not to worry after eight buddies were killed by a car bomb. But a fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, often told his father that he did not think he would return home alive. The fighting in Fallujah Nov. 12 did not discriminate. Both were killed. Branning, of Cockeysville, Md., and Medina, of Woodbridge, Va., belonged to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

Medina was 20.