Lance Cpl. Kyle Wain Codner
Born on Mar. 2, 1985 in Grand Island, Neb.
Died on May 26, 2004 in Al Anbar Province, Iraq
Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Codner was the only son of Wain and Dixie Codner. Kyle grew up on a farm east of Shelton, Nebraska, a town of under 1,200 people. He gave of himself to his community by being involved in sports, speech, drama in school and was active in his church’s youth group. Very unselfish, he could always make people laugh and was rarely seen in a bad mood. A leader in his school’s government, Kyle stood a lanky 6’2″ tall and was a guard on the school’s basketball team, earning an all-conference status. His desire to give to his community spilled over into his desire to give to his country and on June 16, 2003, he enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating with honors from high school. Based at Camp Pendleton, California, Kyle’s physique quickly filled out, and his squad leader, Cpl. Matthew C. Henderson, also from Nebraska, took Kyle under his wing. Both Matthew and Kyle were only sons and they took on the roles of big and little brother. Set to deploy to Iraq in early 2004, Kyle’s mother and his fiancée Megan Kirkover came out to California to visit him before he left. Kyle insisted on splurging on these two women who meant the world to him, putting them up in an expensive hotel and treating them to fancy dinners. Assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, from Camp Pendleton, Kyle deployed in February for a seven-month tour in Iraq. His duty was a combat engineer, looking for land mines and IED’s. He called and emailed home once a week but didn’t let his family know how dangerous his role was. He didn’t want to worry them. He did remind them that freedom isn’t free and that people seem to forget that. On May 26, Kyle and Matthew were killed in action by enemy forces. Besides his parents and fiancée, Kyle is survived by his sister Melissa. His funeral was held at the high school because the entire town closed down that day and the entire town attended his funeral. His fiancée Megan read a poem there, which contained the line, “Loving a Marine isn’t always what they say, and loving him comes with a high price to pay.”
Kyle was buried in Shelton Cemetery and on the top of his headstone are three words etched over his name, “Freedom Isn’t Free.”
The Lance Cpl. Kyle Wain Codner by Freedom Remembered, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
