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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

U. S. Marine Corporal Riley E. Pape was born October 27, 1982 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Grand Forks County, to parents Char and Ronald Pape. He was the second born of their three sons.

Riley grew up in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, Polk County and graduated from East Grand Forks High School in 2001 enlisting into the Marine Corps on June 21st of that year. After completing recruit training in San Diego, California, three days after the 911 terrorist attacks on the U.S., he was meritoriously promoted to Private First Class. He then completed infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California and was assigned as a rifleman there with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

Riley was deployed to the western Pacific in July of 2002 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and upon returning to California, in June of 2003, was accepted into the Advanced Reconnaissance Course due to his demonstrated physical and mental performance. He was then assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and promoted to the rank of Corporal in February 2004. In March of 2004 he was deployed with his unit to Al Anbar Province, Iraq where he participated in combat operations including reconnaissance in and around the cities of Fallujah, Karmah and Ramadi. During part of this period Riley's brother Ross, a Specialist in the Army, was also in Iraq. In August of 2004 Riley returned to Camp Pendleton.

While assigned to Iraq, Marine Major Mike McNamara, a former Grand Forks, ND City Council member and radio personality, had called in to his radio station. Riley's father, Ron, also called in to ask Mike if he could check on Riley. About Riley Mike said "I got to meet him, and got to know him," and that they made plans to get together again after both got home. After Riley was killed, McNamara said he went to the Pape home and met Riley's parents and brother, Ryan.

In November of 2004, while home, Riley sat down with a Grand Forks Herald reporter and talked about his time in Iraq and how he had spent seven months gathering information that was being used then by the U.S. military for its November major offensive on Fallujah. He described how he and four other marines were dropped off in the middle of the desert to observe and take photos without being "seen, smelled or heard" and how he wished he were back in Fallujah then, fighting alongside his brothers. He said, "They are all my brothers over there, every single one of them, and watching it on the news is tough, not being there."

On May 18, 2005, 22 year old Riley E. Pape was lost after a motorcycle accident in San Diego, California. Four years later, his younger brother, Ryan, also a combat experienced Marine corporal, was lost in a parachute training accident. Ross, the only remaining brother, began potato farming with his family after discharge from the Army.

Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Kuyper described Riley as a Marine's Marine. He said, "Even though I'm a staff sergeant and outrank him, I idolized everything he did."

Riley's father Ron's advice to other parents was to always take the opportunity to tell their children that they love them.

Riley was buried in a country cemetery near the family farm north of East Grand Forks, Minnesota. He was survived by his parents Ron and Shar Pape; his brothers Ryan and Ross Pape; grandparents Robert Jr. and Donna Pape and Herbert and Donna Monk; great grandparents Robert Sr. and Henrietta Pape and Gladys Useldinger.