Lance Cpl. Austin Ruiz
Lance Cpl. Austin Ruiz
Lance Cpl. Austin Ruiz was a 19-year-old enlisted member of the United States Marine Corps. He originally hails from Naples, Florida.
Marine Aspirations
Austin and his fiancee
Ruiz grew up in Naples, Florida and attended Naples High School. As a child, Ruiz always dreamed of serving his country and becoming a Marine and his Facebook Profile makes numerous references to those goals. He joined the Marines right after he turned 18.
Meeting his Fiancee
Ruiz was stationed in Japan where he met the love of his life, Lucille Parilla.
They spent Christmas in Tokyo over this past December where Ruiz proposed to her.
The night before he died, Ruiz messaged Parilla expressing his love and commitment to her, saying that"you are the best I've ever had and I want you forever"
Death
On January 13th, Lance Cpl. Ruiz died in routine training mission that took place at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California. He was participating in a small arms live-fire training ahead of the start of an Integrated Training Exercise 2-17, which is a standard pre-deployment workup that infantry units and some support units complete.