Nicholas Rapavi, who was killed in action last Friday, wanted to be a Marine since before he started high school, said his father, Paul, from his home in Springfield.
The family had no military background, but Nicholas Rapavi "thought the Marines were the best of the best, and that's what he had to be," said Paul Rapavi, a dentist. "He always loved to help people, and I guess he thought this was the best way to do it."
Rapavi said his son graduated a little early from Bryant High School in Alexandria in order to join the Marine Corps. Three days later, he started boot camp. "I think he enjoyed the camaraderie and the pride and just feeling that you're doing the best you can do," he said. For example, he reveled in the challenges of physical training (PT) exercises. "Other people would dread it, and he just loved it," said his father.
He said his son started playing baseball when he was 5 and played in the Lorton Little League and the Springfield Youth Club, but he played less in high school because he was devoting his time to lifting weights and working out, preparing for the Marines.
Bryant Principal Jan McKeever recalled Rapavi taking weight-lifting classes in preparation for his military career. "He always had a real strong sense of purpose," she said.
"When Nick came to Bryant, school was not his thing," said McKeever. "He was a very smart kid, but being smart and liking school are not the same thing." However, she said, he soon found his place there, and he excelled in history, writing and algebra. "He had the hearts of a lot of our staff," she added.
One of Rapavi's workout partners was his best friend, Chris Palke, who met Rapavi in high school. "From then on, we were inseparable," said Palke. "He was all about the Corps. He was the one who got me thinking about joining the Corps." Palke said Rapavi felt a need to fight for his country and "for the freedom he'd enjoyed for the first 18 years of his life." Also, he added, "He wanted to be a grunt and get down and dirty and do what no one else wanted to do."
PALKE DESCRIBED his friend as both selfless and social. "He just wanted to be with his family and his friends," he said, adding that Rapavi had many friends in the area. He was also protective of his two younger brothers, said Palke. "He was just an outstanding guy."
"We always said he was guilty of friends by association," said Paul Rapavi. "Anybody that knew one of his brothers knew him." He said his middle son's friends, especially, regarded Nicholas Rapavi as a role model. "He was a tough guy," Paul Rapavi laughed, "and people respected him so much. Even if you had a conflict with him, he could make it be resolved and then be your best friend."
After high school, Rapavi and Palke enlisted through the Marines' buddy system, whereby they went to boot camp together and were supposed to serve together, but they ended up in different units, said Pulke. Rapavi was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force in Camp Lejeune, N.C., according to a Department of Defense release.
His and Palke's tours were on alternating schedules. "He was always watching out for my family while I was gone," said Palke, who has a wife and children.
Between tours, Rapavi had also spent much of his time looking up old friends, coaches, teachers, babysitters and others who had been important to him and dropping in on them, said his father. He had first been deployed to Afghanistan and then on a Navy ship in the Middle East, where he spent some time in Iraq. At the end of July, Rapavi left for Al Anbar province, Iraq on his third tour. He didn't come back.
Paul Rapavi said he had heard different versions of the incident, but what was clear was that on Friday, Nov. 24, Nicholas Rapavi, a squad leader, had gone ahead of his men to investigate a potentially dangerous situation and had been killed by sniper fire.
The Department of Defense release said only that he died "from wounds sustained while conducting combat operations."
RAPAVI'S FOUR-YEAR enlistment would have been up in the spring, said his father, and he had been considering going to college and then reenlisting after he graduated. "He loved the Marines, but he was afraid that if he waited until the was 26, he'd miss out on the college experience," said Paul Rapavi.
Pulke noted that his friend had collected a number of medals and honors, including but not limited to two Purple Hearts, two Combat Action Ribbons, an Expeditionary Medal and a Navy Commendation Medal with a Combat "V." Following his death, he is being considered for another such commendation medal.
Paul Rapavi said he knew little about how his son earned his decorations. "He never talked about how he got them, because he felt that any other Marine in the same situation would have done the same thing," he said. He noted that he also suspected his son did not want to cause his family worry.
Cpl. Nicholas Rapavi will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but the service and burial have not yet been scheduled. In addition to his father, he is also survived by his younger brothers, Jonathan and Christopher, and his mother, Cathy Rapavi-Burnley.