Working for a private military contractor, former US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces against invading Russian military, becoming the first known American to die fighting in the war, CNN reports.
According to his mother, the 22-year-old traveled to Poland on March 12th and was in Ukraine by March 13th. His mother said he was fighting in a unit of international volunteers, but had little information about where he was killed or the circumstances of his death.
“They haven’t found his body,” his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, said. “They are trying, the men that were with him, but it was either grab his body or get killed, but we would love for him to come back to us.”
A prison guard in civilian life, Cancel was signed by a private military contractor prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and left his job to fight in the war. “He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it,” his mother said.