Kyra Coyle-Desilets of E. Peoria was just three years old in 2007 when her father, Marine Lance Corporal Benjamin Desilets, was killed in Iraq. On Saturday in Marseilles, she got an Honor and Remember flag. She’ll hang it in her dorm when she takes pre-law classes at the University of Iowa.
Coyle-Desilets made her first visit to the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial which includes her father’s name.
Benjamin Desilets’s mother, Brenda Bland, talked about him too at the ceremony. She said Kyra was born was Benjamin was a high school senior. That’s not the track she wanted his life to be on, but the joy in his face made a good memory.
Kyra Coyle-Desilets (left) and Laura Wadzinski from the Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run
Marine Lance Corporal Benjamin Desilets, killed in action in Iraq on May 22, 2007