Mashpee Mourns Servicemen

In Mashpee today, residents plan to gather to remember two service-members who died in combat operations in the Middle East last week.

WBUR's Shannon Mullen reports.

The soldier was a talented poet, the Marine an aspiring teacher, both were well known and loved in Mashpee.

They died one day apart - 19-year-old Marine Private Daniel McGuire was killed in a small arms fire attack last Thursday in Iraq.

21-year-old Army Private Paul Conlon died Friday in Afghanistan when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

Both graduated from Mashpee High — their former teachers called the deaths "unspeakable tragedies" and said a lot of people in the small Cape Cod town are hurting.

The high school is scheduled to be open this afternoon with grief counseling available, and a candlelight service is planned for tonight at the town's veterans memorial.