MichaelMoore.com

Marine from the Cape dies in Afghanistan

By Martin Finucane / Boston Globe

A 21-year-old Marine from Yarmouth died Thursday after being wounded in combat in Afghanistan's Garmsir District, Yarmouth police said.

Nicholas G. Xiarhos was the son of veteran Yarmouth Police Lieutenant Steven Xiarhos and his wife, Lisa, the department said in a statement issued this morning.

"We watched him grow up. Many officers on the Yarmouth Police Department watched their whole family grow up. ... All of us feel we've lost a member of our family," said Chief Michael Almonte.

Nicholas Xiarhos was a June 2006 graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. He went to Marine boot camp that summer. In addition to serving in Afghanistan, he had served in intense fighting in Anbar, Iraq, the statement said.

Xiarhos was a squad automatic weapons gunner, squad leader, with the Second Battalion, Eighth Marine Weapons Company, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Defense Department has not yet officially announced his death.

A group of Yarmouth police officers and friends had planned to participate in a 30-mile bike ride in memory of troops with connections to Cape Cod who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ride will now also honor Nicholas Xiarhos, the statement said.

A scholarship fund will also be set up in Xiarhos's name. Donations for the Nicholas George Xiarhos Scholarship Fund may be sent to the Yarmouth Police Department, Attention: YPRA, One Brad Erickson Way, West Yarmouth, MA 02673.

Funeral arrangement information will be released at a later date.