Faoa L Apineru- OurWarHeroes.org - Tribute sites by Q Madp

Faoa L Apineru

Yorba Linda, California

July 2, 2008

Age

Military

Rank

Unit/Location

Marine

SSgt

Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division

Marine Forces Reserve

Died July 2, 2007, from wounds sustained while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Apineru was wounded on May 15, 2005. After his death on July 2, 2007, the initial medical examiner concluded that Apineru did not die from injuries sustained during his deployment, but a subsequent opinion by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology indicated that his death was a result of his injuries sustained in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Faoa "AP" Apineru was a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, a retired Staff Sergeant and Communications Chief with Task Force Rhino. He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, who served the Marines in World War II. Faoa was stationed at Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms, Guantanamo Bay, Okinawa, and Quantico. The Marine Corps family was very important to him. He often referred to his fellow soldiers as "My Marines" because their camaraderie reminded him of his close-knit Samoan family. They called him "AP" because they found his name hard to pronounce. In May 2005, SSG Apineru sustained a traumatic brain injury caused by a road-side bomb while patrolling the northern Iraq border, a wound that eventually took his life.
After his death on July 2, 2007, the initial medical examiner concluded that Apineru did not die from injuries sustained during his deployment, but a subsequent opinion by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology indicated that his death was a result of his injuries sustained in Iraq.