John and Debbie’s son Marine Lance Corporal Justin M. Ellsworth, fell on November 13, 2004 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to Combat Service Support Battalion 1, Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California. He joined the service September of 2003. John Ellsworth, below left with Debbie, is a Command Sergeant in the Wolverine Lake Police Department. His lawsuit with Yahoo! to recover his son’s wartime emails made international headlines in January and February of 2005.

News

• Until the death of his son in Iraq, John Ellsworth considered himself just a "little country boy" who worked as a police officer, went to church and just enjoyed spending time with his family. "I didn't plan on becoming an activist," Ellsworth, 41, of Wixom, said Tuesday.
  
  That change came Nov. 13, when Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Mark Ellsworth, 20, of Mt. Pleasant was killed by a roadside bomb in Fallujah. His platoon did construction work, including building schools for Iraqi children. He received the Bronze Star with valor for helping save the lives of 11 of his fellow soldiers.
  
  That's why it bothered John Ellsworth when Cindy Sheehan, a founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, an antiwar group, grabbed national headlines as a grieving mother against an unjust war.
  
  Ellsworth and his family also grieve deeply, but they believe there is good being done in Iraq because Justin believed that.
  
  "We wanted to make sure people knew she didn't speak for us," said Ellsworth, who is part of Families United For Our Troops and Their Mission. Detroit Free Press, 10/26/05

• "He was proud of the job he was doing," said his father, John Ellsworth. "In my many conversations with him he would get mad at what was being reported to the public. He would say 'Dad we are making a difference to these people.'" Detroit News, 11/15/04

• Read more about Lance Corporal Ellsworth and visit his memorial page here.