Corporal Joseph Steven Tremblay, USMC Class of 1999

Submitted by Bill Norvell 65 <w.norvell@att.net> on 15/Jun/2009
74.243.1.21

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New Windsor – In his last letter to Jennifer, his sweetheart since fourth grade, Joseph Tremblay worried he'd made a mistake volunteering to fight in Iraq."I wonder if coming here is following my heart. I know my place is there with you," he wrote.Jennifer Coloni, Tremblay's fiancee, received the letter yesterday at home in New Windsor, a day after Defense Department officials notified her of his death. Cpl. Tremblay was killed Tuesday night in Hit, Iraq, northwest of Baghdad. The Humvee he was traveling in was hit by a makeshift roadside bomb, according to Marine officials. He was 23. "I can't write anymore, it's getting too dark," ended the letter, dated two weeks ago. "I love you so much and hope that you are happy and well. I will be home with you soon." Jennifer sat on a couch in her fiance's boyhood home yesterday, clutching Joey's black sweatshirt, wearing his Marine Corps T-shirt and his socks. "He went," she said. "Even though he had mixed emotions about (leaving) his family, and me." He was remembered yesterday by his family as a 5-foot-6-inch bundle of contradictions: the baby of the family who worried over his big brother and protected his older sister, the ambivalent warrior dedicated to his brother Marines. "He just wanted to make everything better for everyone else. He was always trying to make everything perfect," Jennifer said. During brief phone calls from Iraq, he told her the devastation was overwhelming. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to fix it. It really bothered him to see pictures of Iraqi children crying, he'd tell Jennifer, asking her to mail more candy. That way he'd have something to give them. He died too young to resolve all the questions swirling in him, they said. His heart led him to re-enlist in the Marines last year and be with the family he had found in the corps, she said. Marine training had put steely muscle on his small frame and given him the inner glow of confidence. But he put little stock in politicians' talk of Iraq and ached to come home. He was a teenage runner who used to jog three miles on a whim to visit Jennifer, but he didn't play high school sports. He had struggled to graduate high school but read the philosophy of Howard Bloom and Sun Tsu on downtime in Iraq. The shy, reserved kid had a knack for comedy and once pondered trying acting. He was considering a career in social work or sales, Jennifer said, or maybe opening an auto window-tinting business. "Joey really wanted to be a dad," she said, picking at the sleeve of his sweatshirt. The toughness of the Marine reputation attracted Joey since junior high school, said his father, Lawrence Tremblay, a 53-year-old mechanic. So, too, did the regimen and the fraternity of the corps: His parents divorced when he was 2, and his father wound up with custody of Joey and his older brother. "I'd be lying if I said (the divorce) probably didn't have something to do with it, his decision," Lawrence Tremblay said yesterday. "It was tough on him." Joseph Tremblay signed enlistment papers even before completing the 1999 summer school session that would earn him his diploma. He was discharged from active duty in August 2003, spending a four-year tour in Hawaii, Japan and Australia – missing combat in Afghanistan. He came back to New Windsor. But after just a few months, he decided to join the Marine Reserves. "I'll be honest," his father said. "I tried to talk him out of it." He signed up anyway. By this winter, his reserve unit was asked to volunteer for duty with the 3rd Marine Battalion's 25th Infantry Regiment. "He told me, "If they ever ask me to go, I'm going,'" Jennifer remembered yesterday.
He had the choice between an immediate one-year tour and waiting a year to begin deployment: He chose to go immediately so he could start a family sooner. On Feb. 22, Jennifer and Joey got engaged in Las Vegas, an unlikely leave destination for the homebody couple. Before he shipped out, he sent Jennifer a dozen roses: 11 red and one white. He'd been sending her that signature bouquet since the sixth grade. Iraq, she said, was not what he expected. The wreckage of war unnerved him, she said, but he threw himself into work to help Iraqi children. There were 20-hour work days and then long stretches of boredom. The couple had decided to relocate north of Orlando, Fla., where she has family. "Whenever he called (from Iraq), he wanted to know where we were, how things were going," Jennifer said. At the Tremblay house yesterday, neighbors who had not gotten the bad news yet tooted their horns hello. Relatives stopped by. As it got later, the phone began to ring more and more. Like every young couple, she and Tremblay had planned a lot of things, even picking out names for future babies. The couple wasn't blind to the danger he was facing. "He gave me all the possibilities, this being one of them," Jennifer said.Information and pictures from Times Herald Record - - - Click here for pictures from Funeral

Corporal Joseph S. Tremblay

Joseph was born on November 13, 1981 in Ridgewood, NJ to Lawrence Tremblay, Sr., and Tina Marie Remo. He graduated in 1999 from Newburgh Free Academy and also attended Orange County Community College. Joseph joined the Marine Corps just after graduation from the Academy in 1999 and completed a four-year tour.  He remained in the Marines Reserve and signed up for active duty when the call went out for volunteers.  During his tour of duty, he served in Hawaii, Japan, and Australia. His beloved family and friends are proud of his dedication in the service of our country. He stands for freedom, honor, and dignity.

Replies to this post

• Re: Corporal Joseph Steven Tremblay, USMC Class of 1999 - Carol Tiso Anderson Maddalena 21/Feb/2011