Fallen Las Vegas Marine is remembered

Eric Leake

Monday, Nov. 29, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

As Eleanor Dachtler struggled with grief after her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Anderson, died in Iraq, she heard on the radio a song that became something more.

"It was my first venture out. I just happened to catch half the song," Datchler said.

She dedicated that song, "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill, to her fallen son in a memorial service Sunday at Mountain View Church.

The song, with its chorus of remembrance, provided the emotional core of a service in which close to 200 people heard Anderson, 19, remembered as a soldier and friend.

Bobby Lichamer spoke of the friend he went with to Bonanza High School, worked with at a lube center and followed to Ventura, Calif., after graduation.

"The difference that Nick made in the short time he lived will be remembered forever," Lichamer said.

Letters were read from Anderson's fellow Marines in Iraq describing his heroics as a soldier and compassion as a conqueror.

They also wrote of his friendship, playing cards with him, and how a grin would spread across his face when he was about to win.

Ilene Carwile, a friend of Anderson, read a letter from his fiancee, Amanda Barnicoat, who is stationed with the Air Force in Japan.

Barnicoat wrote about their romance, about Anderson climbing a ladder to her window past curfew and talking well into the night because, "We figured we weren't breaking the curfew rule as long as I was inside."

He held her when she was seasick and held her hand when she was afraid in deep water, Barnicoat wrote.

Carwile read of the young couple's trip to Disneyland and when they said they loved one another even as they prepared for separate services abroad.

"I remember asking him, 'Are you going to be willing to wait for me?' He replied, 'Sweetie, I would wait a lifetime for you,' " Carwile said, reading Barnicoat's words through tears.

"I never felt so alive as when I was with Nick," she read. "I know he's looking down on me, saying, 'Sweetie, I will wait a lifetime for you.' "

Anderson died Nov. 12 in the Al Anbar province in Iraq when his Humvee rolled. Anderson was manning the machine gun turret when a car attempted to ram the Humvee. The Humvee rolled and the platoon was attacked by insurgents, according to the Defense Department.

He is the ninth serviceman from Nevada to be killed in Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan since the war on terror began in late 2001.

Anderson was given full military honors in the service though he was buried Nov. 22 in Ventura where his father lives.

A Marine honor guard and ROTC color guards from Bonanza and Clark High Schools assisted in the service in which Anderson was awarded the Purple Heart and given a 21-gun salute.

Sunday's service was attended by former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, who added Anderson's name to his mobile Mid-East Memorial Wall, and by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas.

Berkley said there are not sufficient words for the mothers of children who give their lives for their country.

"I am here to tell you how very sorry I am for your loss. And I thank you on behalf of a grateful nation and everyone who knew and loved your son," she said.

Those words were also heard by Helena Lukac, who attended the service with her husband and son. Her other son, 19-year-old John Lukac, was also a Marine, killed in Iraq, and buried in Boulder City Nov. 10.

"I really just feel together with the family and I don't know what to say," Lukac said after the service. "It's just hard to go through this when somebody loses children so early."