Donald Wayne Vincent, shown here in a picture shortly after he graduated from the US Marine Corps Basic Training Facility at Camp Lejune, N.C., died last year of injuries he suffered while on night patrol in Afghanistan. Today would've been the Marine's 27th birthday, a day marked by family members in Meridian.

    Nestled close to her heart, dangling from a silver chain, Kim Duncan of Meridian wears a pendant that is one of the most precious items in her life.

    The flat metal bears the fingerprint of her cousin, Donald Wayne Vincent, a US Marine Corps private who died of injuries last summer while on night patrol with his unit in the Halmand Province of Afghanistan. As Duncan held out the necklace to show an onlooker, she admitted it was a hard gift to receive. But now, anyone would be hard-pressed to wrench it from her grasp.

    “Wayne’s death has been hard for the entire family,” Duncan said. “We miss him an awful lot.”

    Today is Vincent’s birthday. He would have been 27 years old.

    Vincent joined the Marine Corps at a slightly later age than most young men and women. For that distinction he was known as the “old man” of the platoon. He was also well liked and respected. His age endeared him to the younger Marines.

    Vincent was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; He died on the night of July 25, 2009 at Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan. Duncan said when the firefight erupted between his squad and insurgents, a bullet stuck Vincent just above the protective vest soldiers wear. It was one of the few vital areas of his body the armor couldn’t cover.

    Vincent, who went by the name Wayne, was born in Slidell, La., in 1983, the youngest of four children. His father, Lee Vincent, was in the U.S. Navy and the family made several moves before settling in Gainesville in 1988, when Wayne was five years old. Lee Vincent retired as a captain in the Navy.

    Except for two years when Lee Vincent was stationed in Hawaii, Gainesville was where Vincent grew up, attending Talbot Elementary and Ft. Clarke Middle School.

    When his body was returned to the United States, Duncan says she couldn’t believe the number of people who lined the 72-mile stretch of road leading from Jacksonville to Gainesville. It took the procession twice as long to traverse the highway than normal. There was even a helicopter escort for Vincent’s body. Even today it is hard for her to speak of it.

    “His grandmother, who was almost blind at the time and is now 96 years old, said she looked right into Wayne’s eyes as he left on the bus to be deployed,” Duncan says. “She told me she knew he’d never come home alive. She just knew.”

    Victoria Vincent Love lived in Meridian for many years but has recently moved away. Duncan says there are other cousins and relatives who still live in the Meridian area. They include: uncle and aunt, Harold and Lenelle Akin; and cousins, Kim Duncan and her husband, Jason, David Akin and his wife, Monica, Brooklee Akin, Amberlee Akin, and Tori Duncan.

    “I wish I could tell him happy birthday but nevertheless we are thinking about him today,” says Duncan. “He was special.”