http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-ohio-marines-killed,0,3124414.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlinesmy heart goes out to these people
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Rosemary Palmer and her husband were making plans to attend memorial services for six Marine reservists killed earlier this week -- five of them from the same battalion as her son, Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder -- when two uniformed servicemen came down her street.
It was her family's turn.
"We knew. They didn't even get a chance to knock," Palmer said.
For relatives of those in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, there has been a sudden spike in such grim visits from uniformed servicemen.
Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, and 13 more Marines from the Ohio-based battalion were killed Wednesday along with a civilian interpreter in the deadliest roadside bombing in Iraq.
The Marines' deaths, along with two others slain July 28, brought the battalion's toll to 21 in a week. Eleven of those were part of the same Columbus-based unit, Lima Company, that lost four Marines in a single day in May.
Pat Wilsox, who manages a doughnut shop by the battalion's headquarters in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park, threw her hand over her heart when she heard of the latest deaths.
"Oh my God," she said softly. "I'm all for protection but this is getting a little bit ridiculous."