Hundreds turn out to honor Marine killed in Iraq

The New Castle High graduate planned to join his father's business.
By SEAN BARRON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A local Marine who was killed in action last week in Iraq was memorialized at a solemn full military service here.
Several hundred family and military members and friends filled Mary Mother of Hope Church, Beaver Street, on Saturday morning to pay their respects and honor Cpl. Albert Pasquale Gettings, 27, who was killed by small-arms fire Jan. 5 near Fallujah, Iraq. The two-hour service was closed to the press.
Gettings, a 1996 New Castle High School graduate, served as a member of Fox Company, Second Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment. He enlisted in the Marine Corps about three years ago, and was moved to do so after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Gettings was deployed to Iraq in September.
Married last year
Before that, he served about six months in Kabul, Afghanistan. He came home last year and on May 29 married the former Stephanie Palimino before the couple moved to Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Gettings was one of nine soldiers who made it into reconnaissance training and was recently assigned to an infantry unit. At first, he was assigned to supply and accounting, then to the supply depot. Thirty soldiers tried out for the reconnaissance training, his father, David Gettings, had said.
Upon completion of his tour of duty, Gettings was to have joined his father's financial services business. The soldier last spoke to his wife Jan. 3, and he talked to his parents during the Christmas holidays.
Besides his wife and father, Gettings left his mother, Juliet, and a sister, Cori, of Tampa, Fla.
After the service, a dinner was in the Mary Mother of Hope Parish Center next to the church.