San Diego Marine remembered as natural leader, committed patriot

SAN DIEGO -- Even while still in high school, Randal Kent Rosacker had a Marine Corps emblem and an American flag tattooed on his arm.

"The Marines were his thing," Brian Basteyns, a teacher and coach at Rosacker's high school, recalled Tuesday. "That was his life goal. That was his dream."

He was a natural leader, twice chosen by teammates to be captain of the baseball team at San Diego's Junipero Serra High School. Although Rosacker had offers to attend college as an athlete, he didn't even apply, Basteyns said.

"He knew his calling was to be a Marine," he said.

On Sunday, Cpl. Rosacker was among 10 Marines killed in fighting near An Nasiriyah, about 230 miles southwest of Baghdad. He was 21.

On Tuesday, his father, Navy Command Master Chief Rod Rosacker, said he died while "he was doing what he wanted to do."

His passion for his country was evident throughout his high school years, said Basteyns, who taught Rosacker's English class and noted that every book he selected for reports had military themes.

He would check classrooms to make sure an American flag was displayed. One time when he found a math class missing a flag, Rosacker bought one and hung it up.

Basteyns said he is certain Rosacker died as he would have wanted.

"If he had to write a book about how he was going to die, that'd be it for him. He wanted to die defending the red, white and blue," he said.

In high school sports, Rosacker earned the nickname "The General" due to his passion for the Marine Corps and his approach to athletics, said his friend and former teammate Steve Harrison, 21.

"He had a drill-sergeant-like way of going about things," Harrison said. "He was very serious about it. He'd give many wannabe war speeches before games to inspire us."

Rosacker joined the Marines at 18 and hoped to become part of the Corps' special operations team, his father said. A machine-gunner based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he was deployed to the Middle East shortly after the start of the year.

Before he left, Rosacker stopped to say goodbye to Basteyns. He was excited that he would have a chance to put his training to use.

"All of the things he wanted to do all his life were in front of him," he said. "There was some nervousness. ... He knew that he was going to be in one of the first groups in. He'd be right in the middle of it."

He was the type of young man who always had a plan and the commitment to carry it through, Basteyns said.

"I felt very safe knowing he was defending our country," he said.

Basteyns and Harrison recalled that Rosacker knew early on that he wanted to marry his high school sweetheart, Brooke. Basteyns saw the young couple in 2001 as they were about to drive to Las Vegas to get married.

"Randy was very, very mature for his age. He knew what he wanted to do with his life," Basteyns said.

At the Rosackers' home in the hills of San Diego on Tuesday, his wife grew teary-eyed as she declined a reporter's request to speak about her husband.

"I don't want to say anything right now," the young woman said. "It's just too crazy."

Rosacker also is survived by his mother, Debra, and two sisters, ages 14 and 21.

His father, who is based at Naval Station Bremerton and assigned as chief of the boat for the Trident ballistic missile submarine USS Alabama, had returned home after several months away on Monday, only to hear that night about his son's death.

He said the family will have a military service for their son in Colorado, where he was born and where he told his parents he wanted to be buried if anything happened to him.

His high school baseball team plans to hold a ceremony to retire Rosacker's number, No. 9, and hang a memorial to him on the outfield fence, Basteyns said.

"America lost a true believer on Sunday," Harrison said. "This is how he would have wanted it to be. He wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, and fighting for his country.

"That's what we loved him for, his passion for his beliefs."