Remembering Chris Cobb
Born in Sarasota on New Year’s Day, 1985, Christopher Cobb was a lifelong Manatee County resident who attended Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School and Harllee Middle School, then graduated from Bayshore High School in 2003. He was a member of the JROTC and a violinist in the school orchestra. Like many local high school students, he worked part-time jobs after school, including at the Winn-Dixie and the Walgreens near Bayshore High, as well as at a local nursing home. In his free time, he enjoyed playing computer games and going around town with friends.
AUDIO: Recalling Chris's life in Manatee County (Sheila Cobb)
Cobb enlisted in the Marine Corps as a way to see the world outside Bradenton, and hoped to one day become an officer. He was not the first military servicemember in his family: his father, who died while Chris was very young due to complications from Agent Orange exposure, was an Air Force veteran from the Vietnam era.
Described by his mother as a kind young man who was passionate about his future career, he was asked by members of his family if he had grown taller while away at boot camp. He responded, “No, I’m just standing straighter now.”
AUDIO: Chris's enlistment and career aspirations (Sheila Cobb)
Cobb deployed with the rest of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines to Ramadi, the provincial capital of Iraq’s Al Anbar region, on February 9, 2004. Their unit was conducting support and stability operations in the city.
Shortly after the March 2004 ambush of four Blackwater personnel in the Anbari city of Fallujah, US military operations in Anbar Province escalated into an offensive counterinsurgency along the Ramadi-Fallujah corridor—this escalation coincided with a simultaneous siege of the city of Fallujah and a two-day outbreak of violence on the streets of Ramadi. On the morning of April 6, 2004, Cobb was killed by an insurgent ambush while conducting a routine patrol with his unit in the city. He was nineteen years old.
AUDIO: Chris's kindness (Sheila Cobb)
Audio Transcripts