Services to honor fallen Marine

Marine Lance Cpl. Joe Rodewald had wanted to be a Marine “ever since he was 4” growing up in Springfield, his brother, Josh Rodewald, said Saturday.

Joe Rodewald’s dream came true in November 2007 when he joined the U.S. Marine Corps just five months after graduating from South Albany High School.

“I’m not sure what triggered it,” Josh Rodewald, 23, said by phone from his home in Jefferson. “He didn’t want to (just) be in the military, he wanted to be a Marine. He wanted to go fight. He wanted to protect the people he loved.”

Joe Rodewald, 21, was sent to Afghanistan at the end of September and was killed Wednesday when the convoy he was riding in was struck by a roadside bomb.

“I have a lot of mixed emotions,” said another brother, Army Sgt. John Rodewald II, 24, who returned home after a year in Afghanistan and shortly before his brother departed. “But I knew the area he was going into. He had no fear. He was ready to go.”

The four-vehicle convoy that Joe Rodewald was riding in was struck in the Sangin Valley of southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. It’s one of the most dangerous places for soldiers to venture into, a Taliban stronghold and center of opium production, according to The New York Times.

Joe was “very loyal to his friends and his family,” John Rodewald II said. “He always put them first.”

More than 200 people gathered at Friday’s South Albany High home football game against Dallas High School, according to the Albany Democrat-Herald, to honor Joe Rodewald. He was a second-team all-league selection at linebacker his senior year, said Josh Rodewald, who recently joined the Navy but has yet to report.

Joe Rodewald’s body arrived Friday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. His mother, Jacque Brotherton, and father, John Rodewald, both of Albany, were there along with his uncle, Mark Rodewald of Eugene.

The body will be flown to Eugene at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Josh Rodewald said.

Joe Rodewald was born at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on Oct. 19, 1988, Josh Rodewald said.

He briefly attended Thurston Elementary School before his family moved to Albany when he was 7, he said.

“He was born there, raised there and was probably the biggest Duck fan you’ll ever meet,” Josh Rodewald said.

A memorial service will be held at Eastside Christian Church in Albany on Saturday morning.

From there, a caravan will leave South Albany High School and travel to Eugene for a second service at Garden Way Church at 11 a.m.

Joe Rodewald will be buried at Springfield Memorial Gardens, next to a brother who was stillborn.