Lacrosse meant home for a fallen Marine

MariAn Gail Brown
Updated 12:30 am, Friday, March 22, 2013

As soon as the U.S. Marines mail clerk delivered the package, Roger "R.J." Muchnick hugged the long, thin cardboard box to his chest as though it were a prized possession.
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Muchnick tore open the package and pried off the adhesive tape and bubble wrap to reveal a long, sleek lacrosse stick. It was like getting a piece of home -- his childhood and his days playing varsity lacrosse at Staples High School in Westport suddenly dropped in his lap.
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It dawns on her that she is still talking about her 23-year-old son in the present tense. On Tuesday, two U.S. Marines and a chaplain in full-dress uniform showed up on the doorstep of her Jupiter, Fla., home to deliver the worst news a parent will ever hear. ... Her son is dead.

Muchnick was killed along with six other Marines. It didn't happen in combat. Rather, it happened during a live-fire, training drill Monday night in the Nevada desert. A mortar exploded in a launch tube, and just like that, her boy was gone.