Washington Marines killed in Iraq

LAKE STEVENS, Wash. – Two Marines from Washington state are among the latest casualties of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Pfc. Cody S. Calavan, 19, of Lake Stevens, Wash., died Saturday during hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, the Marines announced in a news release Tuesday. Lance Cpl. Dustin Lee Sides, 22, of Yakima, was killed Sunday night in an ambush near Fallujah, his family told the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Calavan was a machine gunner assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. He joined the Marine Corps June 16, 2003, and his awards include the National Defense Service Medal, the Marines said.

Sides, a 2001 graduate of Yakima Alternative School, was a wrecker driver assigned to the 9th Communications Battalion, also based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

His stepmother, Nancy Sides, told the newspaper that a team of Marine sergeants notified the family of the death at their Yakima Valley home about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Nancy Sides said.

Sides joined the Marines about a year ago, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Derek, and a cousin, both of whom also served in the Corps, his family said.

Calavan and Sides were the 12th and 13th people from Washington state killed in Iraq since the start of the second Gulf War.