A 21-year-old Marine recently died while serving as a security guard at the US Embassy in Nigeria, shortly after proposing marriage to his fiancee.
The death of Cpl. Elwin Ramirez is currently under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, according to an announcement by the Marine Security Guard, which protects American diplomatic missions around the world.
Ramirez should be released in a few months. He recently proposed to his fiancée and planned to start life with her in San Diego after he left the service, his brother told the Lodi News-Sentinel.
The infantry marine was from Lodi, California and died Dec. 17, according to a GoFundMe campaign by his family, which also revealed his age.
NCIS “is conducting a thorough investigation … as we do in response to every non-combat, medically unattended death of a Department of the Navy member,” NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston told the Marine Corps Times.
“Out of respect for the investigation, NCIS will not comment further while the investigation is ongoing.”
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Ramirez had “excelled at the MSG school” according to the announcement and was in his second post, having previously been assigned to the Valletta department in Malta. According to GoFundMe, his ministry had also taken him to Italy, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Shortly before Ramirez’s death, he asked his brother Edison “what good email would be for me,” he told the News-Sentinel.
“I asked why and he said if anything happens to him,” Edison Ramirez said. “Then I never heard from him again.”
Edison Ramirez, who hopes to join the California Highway Patrol or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said his brother is “dedicated” to the Marines and “a great role model.”
Ramirez’s body was taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Thursday, the Marine Corps Times reported.
Source: americanmilitarynews.com
