Letter reaches Tonopah three days after Marine dies in Iraq

LAS VEGAS -- Three days after he was killed in Iraq, 2nd Lt. Frederick Pokorney Jr.'s letter reached the Nevada man he considered his father.

The letter was dated March 8, and Pokorney said he was bored. His Marine brigade was waiting in Kuwait to cross the border into Iraq. He wanted to move, or go home. He didn't want to miss his daughter's birthday.

"That was Fred," former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Wednesday from his Tonopah home. "He wanted to get into it."

Lieseke could not be immediately reached Thursday by The Associated Press.

Pokorney, 31, was the first Nevada casualty in the Iraq war.

He was one of at least nine Marines killed Sunday in fighting near An Nasiriyah. The Pentagon said they were ambushed after some Iraqi soldiers feigned surrender.

All were based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Pokorney was assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

A 1989 graduate of Tonopah High School, Pokorney lived for about two years in the high desert town about midway between Las Vegas and Reno. He played basketball and football and made his own way, living with Lieseke and, for about six months, with his basketball coach. He still listed "Nye, Nev.," with the military as his hometown.

The school and Tonopah's 3,600 residents plan a memorial Friday morning at the school.

Pokorney's wife, Chelle, and their 2Y-year-old daughter, Taylor Rochelle, live in Jacksonville, N.C., outside Camp Lejeune.

Lieseke said that when a Marine notification contingent arrived at the door of the family home, Taylor screamed.

"She knew," Lieseke said of the toddler. "Pretty perceptive child."

She may have overheard her parents talking about the process the military uses for soldiers caught in harm's way, said Lieseke, who served 12 years as county sheriff before retiring this year.

"If you're wounded, they send you a telegram," he said. "If you're dead, they send a Marine."

Pokorney's letter was upbeat, eager, and "talked about all the things he wanted to do when he got home," Lieseke said.

It spoke of Pokorney's yearning for a custom motorcycle, but said he might buy a boat instead -- something the whole family could enjoy.

"He was always thinking about his family, what was best for them," Lieseke said.

Lieseke said that Pokorney, a well-muscled 6-5 and 240 pounds, was his family's unwavering foundation.

"He was such a big, strong athlete," Lieseke said. "It didn't seem like anything could hurt him."