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Local Marine was ready to leave Iraq
BY MARK FONTECCHIO
The Patriot Ledger
Published Jan. 31, 2005
WEYMOUTH - Marine Sgt. Andrew Farrar Jr. broke his right hand two weeks ago in Iraq and had the chance to be assigned to lighter duty.
The Weymouth native refused.
"That's just the way he was," said his brother, Jason Farrar of Weymouth.
"Selfless."
On Friday, his 31st birthday and just a few weeks before he was to return home, Farrar was killed when he ran into a live power line while looking for insurgents in the Fallujah area, his family said.
"I never thought the next time I saw him he would be coming here in a box," said his mother, Claire Farrar, of Weymouth. "It was his birthday. He should have been opening boxes of presents."
Farrar left in August for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was assigned to the volatile Fallujah area, which has been a stronghold of insurgents and Baath Party holdouts from the regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. Farrar was involved in the heavy fighting that crushed Islamic extremists in the central Iraq city in November.
On Thursday, he talked on the phone to his wife, Melissa, his sweetheart from their Weymouth High School days. She lives near Camp Lejeune, N.C., Farrar's home base, with their children Liam, 1, and Tyler, 6, a boy who revered his father and once recited the Marine Hymn at school for show-and-tell.
Farrar told his wife that he was ready to leave Iraq behind and get on with the rest of his life.
Farrar, who followed in the footsteps of younger brother Jason by enlisting in the Marines, had been talking about going to college and becoming a teacher, like his other younger brother, Nathan Farrar.
Farrar, a member of the 2nd Military Police Battalion, was at his family's home in Weymouth in July and stayed until August. One night, he went out for a few beers with his brothers and friends. Jason Farrar recalled that his brother had just taken the State Police exam and aced it.
"I asked him then why he re-enlisted," Farrar recalled. "He said, 'Jay, I have to, because other people can't.' "
On Aug. 20, the family traveled to North Carolina to see him off to Iraq. Claire Farrar promised herself that she would not cry even though she was confused about why he was being sent back into heavy combat. But she did not want her son to feel guilty.
"I told him to keep his head down and his guard up," she said.
His family sat around the living room of their Weymouth home yesterday, passing around photos, sharing passages from letters he wrote them and displaying gifts he bought them, like the samurai swords from Okinawa that were a Mother's Day gift.
They remembered him as a quiet man, a guy who liked rock bands Oasis and the Dropkick Murphys. They said his devotion to the Marines and its history was trumped only by his love for his family.
Farrar had two significant marks on his left arm. On his wrist was a black tattoo with the letters "USMC." On his bicep, closer to his heart, Farrar had branded himself with the letters: "MX."
His wife's maiden name is Xayavong.
In a letter to his brother's class at Abigail Adams Middle School in Weymouth, Farrar described himself.
"He said he was a sucker for Guinness and chewing tobacco," said Nathan Farrar, "and that the only thing he loved more than the Marines was his wife and two kids."
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