Wednesday, March 26, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.
TONOPAH -- Former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke knew he was helping a good kid when he and his wife, Suze, took in a 16-year-old with nowhere to go.
Lieseke didn't know that he was gaining a son.
On Tuesday Lieseke and the town of Tonopah mourned the loss of U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr., who was killed in Iraq over the weekend.
"All Fred needed was some stability, and he did the rest," Lieseke said in his Tonopah home Tuesday. "He was just determined to be successful, and he would not accept defeat.
"He was one of the finest people I've ever known."
The Pentagon said Pokorney, 31, was one of at least nine Marines killed after an encounter with Iraqi troops Sunday near An Nasiriyah.
The news hit hard in Pokorney's adopted town, 220 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where his wife, Carolyn Rochelle, and 2 1 /2-year-old daughter, Taylor, were told of Pokorney's death Monday.
"I don't know what his family is going to do," Lieseke said. "He was their rock. I got a call from Chelle (Carolyn) right after the Marines came to her door to tell her what had happened.
"Taylor saw the Marines coming up the walk and started screaming hysterically. She knew why they were there, and now she has to grow up without a father."
Lieseke met Pokorney 15 years ago when Pokorney was dating his daughter. The 16-year-old had moved from Southern California to Tonopah after his mother died, but soon after making the move the aunt he was living with in Tonopah also passed away.
Pokorney wanted to stay in Tonopah instead of moving back to California with his biological father, and the Lieseke's took him in.
"He was basically an orphan, but he fit right in here," said Nye County Justice of the Peace Joe Maslach, a family friend. "This town and the Liesekes were his family."
American flags flew at half-staff in Tonopah, and the high school hallways were decorated with homemade signs on butcher paper asking students to remember Pokorney and the other soldiers fighting in Iraq.
Lieseke said he is still having trouble believing that Pokorney is gone.
"You don't want to believe it, and at first you hope it's a mistake," Lieseke said. "You don't have any perspective and feel like you're in a fog. You want to do something, but you don't know what to do."
The 6-foot-7 Pokorney thrived in Tonopah, playing center for the the Tonopah High School Muckers basketball squad, and wide receiver and defensive line for the football team.
Pokorney's former basketball coach, Tim Mutch, a former Marine, said that Pokorney was a hard worker in high school, and held down jobs as a waiter, dishwasher and cook at the now-closed Mizpah Hotel.
Pokorney joined the Marines soon after graduating from high school and attended Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., where he graduated with a degree in military science, Liseke said.
Pokorney met his wife in Washington state where he was stationed for security duty at the Navy's Bangor submarine base, and they later moved to North Carolina.
Dave Sodeman, a former neighbor of the Pokorney's in Corvallis, recalled Pokorney as a dedicated soldier who believed in the military, and a large man who worked out frequently.
"I had to look up at him, he was way over 6 feet," said Sodeman, 62, who served in the Navy for 20 years. "I wouldn't want him on the wrong side of me."
Lieseke said that Pokorney was a serious person, who enjoyed being challenged.
"It wasn't that he was abrupt or impolite, but he was intense and liked the discipline and order that he found in the military," Lieseke said. "He didn't like to do things the easy way."
During his last visit to Tonopah in 2002 Pokorney left a calling card for his adopted father.
"We had this big pile of wood, and Fred declared that he wasn't getting enough PT (physical training), so he decided to restack the wood," Lieseke said. "I came home and the wood was piled in perfect rows and dimensions. Every stick was stacked perfectly, and I knew that Fred had done it."
Pokorney was assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Pokorney's wife released a written comment about her husband through the base on Tuesday.
"Anyone that was blessed by knowing Fred has suffered an indescribable loss, we all hurt deeply," the statement reads.
Lieseke, who prefaced his comments by saying he was emotional, said he supported the U.S. troops but said he wasn't sure the U.S. should "be the liberators of Iraq."
"A million Iraqis are not worth Fred's life," he said.
Lieseke, who was an Army helicopter gunner during the Vietnam War, said that Pokorney was proud to serve his country.
"I put away all my medals and things from Vietnam, because I wanted to forget, but Fred thought they should be out," Lieseke said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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