Marine Cpl. George J. Payton
Death: Nov 14, 2004
of Culver City Calif.; assigned to the 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment 1st Marine Division Camp Pendleton Calif.; killed Nov. 14 by enemy action in Anbar province Iraq. Camp Pendleton Marine killed in Iraq Associated Press CULVER CITY Calif. — George J. Payton was sent to live with relatives in Fiji during high school because his mother worried about the influence of gangs in their Los Angeles neighborhood. A year later he returned focused and mature joining the Marines in 2002. “He was getting around to becoming the kind of man I wanted him to be” said his mother Chandra a literacy coach. “He was my confidante my support my right hand.” Payton died Nov. 14 of combat wounds suffered in Iraq’s volatile Anbar province where Marines led a recent offensive against insurgents in Fallujah. The 20-year-old team leader was assigned to the 3rd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment 1st Marine Division I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton. Military officials told his mother that Payton was shot and hit with a grenade as he led troops through the door of an apartment in a combat zone. He died at a military hospital eight hours later. Born in Scranton Pa. Payton lived in Culver City attending school and helping his mother care for his three younger brothers. Payton was near the end of his second tour in Iraq. In one of his last letters home he told his mother not to send any more care packages. “He wrote that he had a strange feeling that something would happen to him that he’d probably come home before December” his mother said. “I thought maybe so but I thought he’d come home alive.” In addition to his mother Payton is survived by brothers Ge offrey17 Albert8 and Anand 6. A memorial service was held Nov. 24 at Holy Cross Mortuary in Culver City. His ashes were spread at sea.