{"id":32591,"date":"2023-12-01T23:43:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T23:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/12\/01\/marine-veteran-killed-in-ukraine-was-fearless-his-commander-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:03:09","slug":"marine-veteran-killed-in-ukraine-was-fearless-his-commander-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2023\/12\/01\/marine-veteran-killed-in-ukraine-was-fearless-his-commander-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine veteran killed in Ukraine was \u2018fearless,\u2019 his commander says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/07\/11\/marine-vet-who-avoided-spotlight-found-purpose-before-death-in-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marine veteran was killed in Ukraine<\/a> in October while<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/05\/09\/ukraine-fighting-reveals-parallels-to-marine-corps-new-vision\/\" target=\"_blank\"> trying to destroy a Russian vehicle, <\/a>according to his commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Veteran Lance Cpl. Joel David Beal had been fighting for Ukraine with the volunteer group Chosen Company since February or March, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/08\/11\/marine-veteran-killed-while-volunteering-as-fighter-in-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\">company commander Ryan O\u2019Leary <\/a>told Marine Corps Times on Nov. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While fighting in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/06\/13\/the-battle-of-donbas-could-prove-decisive-in-ukraine-war\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Pervomais\u2019ke in Donetsk Oblast,<\/a> Beal was hit by a mortar round after jumping out of his trench in an attempt to destroy a Russian infantry vehicle that was attacking his comrades, O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was just fearless,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2022\/05\/13\/ukraine-war-has-the-marine-corps-revamping-ied-training\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7138422.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Ukraine war has the Marine Corps revamping IED training<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">It&#039;s criminal to not train Marines on counter-IEDs before they deploy, this 2-star general said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response to a Marine Corps Times query about whether Beal had been killed in Ukraine, a State Department spokesperson on Nov. 22 confirmed the death of a U.S. citizen in Ukraine on Oct. 12 but declined to provide more details, out of respect for the family\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beal served in the Marine Corps from 2006\u20132010, leaving as a lance corporal, according to information provided by Corps spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rifleman, he deployed to Iraq from June 2008 to October 2008. His awards included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (twice), Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and National Defense Service Medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His final duty assignment was 1st Intelligence Battalion at Camp Pendleton, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beal\u2019s death was first reported by Task &amp; Purpose. Marine Corps Times could not get in touch with Beal\u2019s family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Chosen Company, Beal\u2019s callsign was Gander, though O\u2019Leary said he doesn\u2019t know the origin of the name. Beal was close with fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/08\/11\/marine-veteran-killed-while-volunteering-as-fighter-in-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\">Marine veteran Lance Lawrence<\/a>, who was killed in July, according to O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beal volunteered for every mission, O\u2019Leary said. On one mission, when Beal was the driver of his team\u2019s Humvee, he noticed one of his teammates had dropped a 40 mm grenade launcher near the Russian position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beal dismounted the Humvee and circled to the other side of it while shooting at the Russian position, according to O\u2019Leary. The Marine veteran picked up the grenade launcher and lobbed rounds at the Russian fighters as he returned to the driver\u2019s side, \u201cand then just drove off like it was nothing,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe had conviction in what he was doing, and he lived through that conviction,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beal is at least the seventh U.S. Marine veteran killed in the war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other Marine veterans known to have died in the war are Lawrence; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/07\/11\/marine-vet-who-avoided-spotlight-found-purpose-before-death-in-ukraine\/\">Ian Frank Tortorici<\/a>, 32, killed in June; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/05\/04\/marine-vet-killed-in-ukraine-reportedly-while-evacuating-civilians\/\">Cooper \u201cHarris\u201d Andrews<\/a>, 26, killed in April; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/02\/09\/marine-veteran-killed-while-providing-medical-aid-in-ukraine\/\">Pete Reed<\/a>, 33, killed in February; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinecorpstimes.com\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2023\/05\/19\/body-of-marine-vet-who-went-missing-in-ukraine-in-2022-returns-home\/\">Grady Kurpasi<\/a>, 50, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2022\/04\/29\/marine-veteran-killed-fighting-in-ukraine-relatives-say\/\">Willy Joseph Cancel<\/a>, 22, each killed in April 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran Marine Lance Cpl. Joel David Beal was hit by a mortar round while attempting to destroy a Russian infantry vehicle, his commander said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,26,19],"tags":[8511,8528],"coauthors":[3366],"class_list":["post-32591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-newsletters","category-veterans","tag-europe","tag-ukraine"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2CFZHMCRPFANRAIQ2URURVIHSI","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2023\/12\/01\/marine-veteran-killed-in-ukraine-was-fearless-his-commander-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marine veteran killed in Ukraine was \u2018fearless,\u2019 his commander says - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Veteran Marine Lance Cpl. 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