Army SSGT Zachary Wobler
December 8, 2024
Nola.com / Published online on May 2, 2009
Mark A. Wojciechowski was raised in a military household. His step grandfather served in the Marines and his mother served in the Army. Wojciechowski signed up for basic training the fall after he graduated high school. It was there that he really grew up, said Kathi Dillinger, Wojciechowski’s step grandmother. “It’s one of those cases where he goes in a boy and comes out a man,” Dillinger said. “After basic training, he aged emotionally 10 years. He was just a good man.” Wojciechowski, 25, of Cincinnati, Ohio, died April 30 while supporting combat operations in Anbar province. He was assigned to Camp Pendleton. “He loved being a Marine. He probably would have made a career out of it,” said Dillinger. “He just wanted to do his duty wherever he could.” Wojciechowski, or “Tony Wojo” as he liked to be known, was on his second deployment to Iraq and had been a Marine for six years “He went out and did the duty as he saw fit and put his life on the line for the kind of things we value in the community. It’s a tragedy he’s been lost to us,” said Gary Brooks, the superintendent of West Clermont Schools.
From Teresa Kroner Dillinger:
My son was always above his peers socially and growing up in school. He would have made the military his career. I signed the papers for him at 17. He went Security Forces and Infantry and re-enlisted for EOD. He re-enlisted twice after that. He was a Marine’s Marines. He saved many lives and detonated thousands of IEDs. Tony my son is my hero. Semper Fi and God Bless.
