Ramon Kaipat saw opportunity in the Marine Corps when he and his family moved to Tacoma from Saipan in the western Pacific in 2004.

His cousin Courtney Taisakan recalled Kaipat called him to ask about his own experiences in the Marine Corps and that he dropped a lot of weight to meet the corps’ rigorous physical standards.

Kaipat graduated from Mount Tahoma High School in 2007 and enlisted in the Marine Corps in following year.

“He looked up to the Marines,” …

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A Tacoma man who was wounded in Iraq will receive his Purple Heart nearly nine years late in a ceremony Tuesday at Joint Base-Lewis McChord.

Marine Corps veteran Kenneth McAllister will be presented with the nation’s oldest military decoration for combat wounds he suffered on April 1, 2003, while serving in Iraq with a 1st Marine Division tank battalion based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

McAllister joined the Marines in 2000 and was honorably discharged in 2004 with the rank of lance corporal. Last August he contacted the Tacoma office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell asking for help getting the Purple …

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