Las Vegas Marine is laid to rest

Jace Radke

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

A 21-gun salute by Marines in dress uniforms welcomed Las Vegas Marine Pfc. John Lukac home to his final resting place at the Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City on Wednesday.

Lukac, a 19-year-old who graduated with honors from Durango High School in 2003, was killed Oct. 30 in Iraq when terrorists crashed a sport utility vehicle full of explosives into the convoy that Lukac was riding in. He was buried with full military honors, including a flyover by Air Force jets in the missing man formation.

His mother kissed his flag-draped coffin before she was given the folded flag. His father was comforted by the Marines as they said goodbye to their son.

About 75 mourners and two dozen Marines attended the funeral.

Vietnam veteran Danal Meza said that Lukac will be in his thoughts today as he thinks about all the veterans who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

"I hope everyone remembers that we laid a 19-year-old to rest in Boulder City," Meza said. "It should serve as a reminder to everyone what our soldiers are sacrificing for us."

Lukac died about 1:40 p.m. on Oct. 30 in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. He was one of eight Marines killed and nine injured in the attack.

His family said that being a Marine was his dream, but that didn't slow the fall of tears on Wednesday. Two months after graduating from Durango in 2003, Lukac went to boot camp.

"He said, 'I'm going to fight for the United States, for freedom,' " Lukac's father Jan Lukac said after getting word of his son's death. "We paid a high price, but if people ask me if I would do it one more time, I would do it because it was his dream."

The family has lived in Las Vegas for three years, and prior to that they lived in Los Angeles after fleeing the former Czechoslovakia in 1983.

John Lukac loved playing video games and computers, friends and family said. He liked to play basketball with friends and enjoyed going into the desert with his father and 15-year-old brother, Peter, to target shoot.

After spending much of the last year deployed in the Pacific, including stops in Hawaii, Japan and Guam, Lukac's unit moved into Iraq about a month ago.

Lukac was a member of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Hawaii. He was the seventh military member from Nevada killed in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan since fighting began in the Middle East in late 2001.