Hometown: Fremont, CA
Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: April 6, 2004 - KIA in Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq
Age: 19
Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011

Travis Layfield wanted to be soldier from a very young age. When he was 9 years old, his family went to an air show at Moffett Federal Airfield. His mother, Dianne, recalled that Travis saw people in uniform through the open doors of an airplane hangar, “And he said, ‘I want to sign up.’ That’s where it started.”

Travis was not the first in his family to serve his country in the military. His maternal grandfather, Harry Morse, served with the “Fighting Seabees” in World War II’s Pacific Theater.

With his father John, mother Dianne, older half-sister Tiffany and younger brother Tyler, Travis grew up in Fremont, California—on the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay. His older half-brother, Todd, lived in Arkansas but visited often.

A stand-out athlete in both baseball and football, Travis struggled academically but was something of a history buff. He loved to watch WWII documentaries on The History Channel.

As he grew older, his interest in military service never wavered. While in middle school, he attended the Navy’s youth development program—the Sea Cadets—in hopes of following in his grandpa’s footsteps.

While a student at Fremont’s Washington High School, Layfield joined the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).

At age 16, Travis’s parents allowed him to get a tattoo of a feather—honoring his Lakota Sioux heritage on his father’s side. His grandmother told him that the feather was a symbol that meant “first-born son.”

Shortly after getting his driver’s license, Layfield bought his cousin’s sky-blue 1962 Ford Galaxie, “his prized possession,” according to his mother.

After speaking with recruiters who came to his school, Travis surprised his parents by announcing that he’d be joining the United States Marine Corps rather than the Navy. “He said he wanted to be the best of the best,” Dianne remembers. He joined the Marines ten days after graduating from high school.

Layfield completed twelve weeks of basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in San Diego, California. He was then assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, California.

Now Lance Corporal Travis Layfield was sent to Germany in February 2004, then to Kuwait, and then to Ramadi, Iraq in March 2004—in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On April 6, 2004, Lance Cpl. Layfield was serving as a radio operator in a Humvee traveling through an intersection in Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Iraqi insurgents lay in wait on the rooftops above and opened fire on the Americans’ convoy in a surprise attack.

In the firefight, Lance Cpl. Travis J. Layfield was lost at age 19, just a month after arriving in Iraq. He was laid to rest near his hometown, with full military honors, at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California (Section 2b, Site 3588).

At the memorial service, the Layfield family brought in a Lakota Sioux medicine man to perform a drumming ceremony. He asked the Layfield family if they knew the meaning of Travis’s feather tattoo. It turns out that Travis’s grandmother had been mistaken. Rather than “first-born son,” the medicine man told them that the feather was a Lakota symbol for “fallen warrior.”

To honor his son, Layfield’s father, John, restored Travis’s prized sky-blue Ford Galaxie.

Two and a half years after the loss of Lance Cpl. Layfield, his family discovered that Travis had a son he’d never known about, with a past girlfriend. The Layfield family embraced Dylan—the grandson and nephew who is a living legacy to Travis.

Sources
Card photo and story details submitted by Mrs. Dianne Layfield, LCpl Layfield’s Gold Star Mother.
The Times Leader, September 14, 2004: Grieving the loss of a gentle warrior
The Stockton Record, April 12, 2004: Fremont Marine killed in Iraq during battle
The Bradenton Herald, August 23, 2004: Driving Into Disaster
Military Times—Honor the Fallen: Marine Lance Cpl. Travis J. Layfield
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, April 20, 2004—Extensions of Remarks: In Memory of Lance Cpl. Travis J. Layfield
SFGate, April 16, 2004: LAYFIELD, Lance Corporal, Travis J.
Oakland Tribune, January 9, 2006: Family of soldier slain in Iraq discovers he had a young son
Burial Site: Find a Grave