Gunnery Sgt. Christopher L. Eastman, 28, of Moose Pass, Alaska, died July 18 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Eastman: Family Remembers Fallen Marine: 'He Gave Everything': Newspaper Obituary and Death Notice

Chronicle, The (Centralia, WA) - August 10, 2010

Deceased Name: Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Eastman: Family Remembers Fallen Marine: 'He Gave Everything'

Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Eastman spent his early life as one of four people living in a one-room apartment in Centralia, so maybe that begins to tell the story of why he cared so much about the poor civilians of Afghanistan.
Eastman, 28, died July 18 from a bomb explosion in the Helmand Province of the war-torn country, where he dismantled "Brown Bettys," land mines that dot wide swaths of parched land surrounding villages.
Eastman's local family members have come forward to honor the fallen soldier who was adopted as a child by another Lewis County family that moved to Alaska for his high school years.
Born in Centralia, Eastman lived with his adoptive family in Salkum and Onalaska, where he enjoyed four-wheeling and played soccer before making the big move north.
His biological mother, 47-year-old Angie Mendoza, still lives in Centralia. She said Eastman made his life count — as a son, husband, father and soldier — despite an impoverished upbringing.
"He took an awful situation and said, 'I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to be like that,'" Mendoza said, holding back tears. "What he did, some people aren't able to do. A man who lays down his life for his friends, there is no greater love."
Mendoza already had three children by the time she was 18, and the young family broke apart amid the mire of drug and alcohol abuse. Despite that pain, Eastman kept in touch with his mother through the years, including in 1999, when he told her he was joining the U.S. Marines right out of his Seward, Alaska, high school.
A decade later, he was on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, having also been deployed to Iraq.
"When he told me he was joining up, I asked him if that was really what he wanted to do, if he was sure," Mendoza said. "He wanted a professional career and when he decided something was right, it was right. There was no wavering."
Mendoza said her son was never interested in the machines of war — guns, tanks and such — but rather, he had more concern for the big picture of what he was doing.
"He was there as a protector for the civilians, for the dismemberment of the bombs," Mendoza said. "He was strong on the idea that our presence there left no military permanence."
Eastman is also survived by his sister, Adrianna Taylor, 24, of Chehalis. She said her brother's military service took him all over the world, and he would send exotic gifts from time to time.
"He sent me a blow dart gun," Taylor said. "Yeah, that was cool."
Taylor said even though the family fell apart early, her brother always considered it important to keep in touch.
"It's not just a personal loss. It's a loss for everybody," Taylor said. "He was a solider. He gave everything."
Eastman is also survived by his wife, Gaby Eastman, daughter Joy and an unborn child, of Murrieta, Calif., and his adoptive mother, Joy Eastman. In Lewis County, he is survived by the Eastman, Mendoza, Lange and Gutierrez families. His two brothers are Joe Eastman, of Honolulu, Hawaii, and Jordan Eastman of Moose Pass, Alaska.
Assigned to the 1st Explosive Ordinance Disposal Company, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, Eastman was awarded a Purple Heart and his funeral services took place at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and in Murrieta.