1987 graduate of South Medford High School in Oregon, Mark was on the swim team. He spent one year as a foreign exchange student in South Africa and another year in Ecuador. Mark joined the Marines in 1996 and completed flight school the following year. Parents Roger and Joyce Vanderbeek, are understandably proud of Mark, as is his older brother Mike. Mark is married to Jenny and has a 2 year old son, Hayden.
Mark
was quoted saying earlier in the war..."Flying over Baghdad
everyone is waving, but you never relax and always feel a little vulnerable.
You never know where that person is who will pull out his AK-47 and
fire..."
Come Home Soon Mark!
See
what else Mark had to say!
"Our family has been arguing for months on this photo as to whether Mark was in it. We finally asked him!"June 16, 2003 Mike Vanderbeek "well, i figured out how to get it. yes that is me. this was on our very first casevac mission. it was five days long right at the start of the war. I watched the first artitlleray salvo at 0500 in the morning drop on a place called safwan hill. from then on 7th marines poured across a breach in the berm that separated the kuwait and iraq. this picture was taken in the az aubayr oil fields. we hauled about thirteen wounded out over the first two days of the war from az aubayr. my copilot was 10 , crew chiefs were 1 and 4, our flight medic was 9. major grathwol 11, was the section lead. lots of stories....." Mark Vandebeek |
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