earned a purple heart. he did two 2004 to tours of duty, he s a native son of massachusetts, he s being honored in his home state today in the city of springfield where a flag has been lowered to half-staff outside of city hal. there s skip wells and in marietta, georgia, they are mourning him. he graduated from high school just three years ago. he went on to study history in college, he became a marine, he took a trip to disneyworld with his mother and she put out a statement saying this to cnn. my son died doing what he loved for the love of his country and his family. we also heard this morning from a dear friend of skip wells who said he knew skip since he was in the fourth grade. this is how he describes him. he loved his country. his mama served in the military. i believe she was a marine also so i figured he just wanted to follow in her footsteps. he was in rotc in high school,