Forty-five-year-old Sergeant Maj. Robert J. Cottle, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division pays tribute to one of his fallen Marines on March 8, 2010 at South Station, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

A little more than two weeks later, Sergeant Major Cottle, a seven-year active-duty veteran and high-ranking SWAT officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, was struck by a roadside bomb killing him and 19 year old Marine Lance Corporal Rick Centanni.