December 11, 2004 -- 20 year old Private First Class Christopher Adlesperger was a rifleman assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

He died fighting in Iraq's Al Anbar Province on Thursday. It's a volatile area West of Baghdad that includes Fallujah.

Adlesperger was from Albuquerque but he was a fifth generation soldier from Mesilla.

"I always saw him as a champion. He was always a good kid. I loved him and I'm going to miss him," said Lorenzo Martinez, Christopher's cousin.

Christopher was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California and deployed to Iraq in September.