The third American the U.S. State Department identified as missing in action in Ukraine is a U.S. Navy veteran, Grady Kurpasi, his wife, Heeson Kim, confirmed to CNN.
The last time Kim and other close friends heard of Kurpasi was between April 23 and 24, George Heath, a friend of Kurpasi’s family, told CNN.
Kurpasi served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 20 years, and retired in November 2021. He chose to volunteer alongside the Ukrainians in Ukraine, but initially did not imagine fighting on the war front, he said. Heath.
“For him personally, he has a set of skills that he feels he can return to,” Heath said. “I wanted to go and help the Ukrainian people. I really had no plans to fight.”
The State Department said it was aware of reports of a third American who traveled to Ukraine to fight Russia who has been identified “in recent weeks” as missing, the State Department spokesman said on Thursday. State, Ned Price, during a press conference.
Price did not name the missing third American, but said the State Department was in contact with the family.
Kurpasi arrived in Ukraine on March 7 and arrived in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on March 21, Heath said. In late April, near Kherson, Kurpasi and other members of the Foreign Legion were given the task of directing an observation post, when Kurpasi stopped communicating with his wife and friends in the United States. United, Heath said.
The Foreign Legion is a group of foreign fighters who have volunteered to fight alongside the Ukrainians against Russia’s invasion of the country. It is unclear whether Kurpasi was a member of the foreign legion, but he was a volunteer fighting alongside the Ukrainians, Heath said.
Troops from Kurpasi and the foreign legion occupying the site at the time began “receiving small arms fire” on April 26, Heath said, meaning they were shot. Kurpasi and the other soldier “went to investigate what was going on,” so they left the observation post, Heath said. Grady then communicated by radio to the Ukrainian Army to start firing and “it was the last time anyone knew about him,” Heath said.
Heath has rebuilt this account of other members of the foreign legion with whom he has spoken for weeks since Kurpasi disappeared, he said.
The State Department told Kim that Kurpasi was missing in action on April 28, Heath said. The reason he has been identified as missing in action is because his body has not been found or identified, he added.
“Kurpasi’s goal was not to be in the shootings doing things like that,” when he went to Ukraine, Heath said. “It simply came to our notice then.”
Kurpasi joined the U.S. Navy after 9/11 and had a total of four deployments during his service, including three in Iraq. He was a member of the decorated service that won the medal of good conduct three times, the medal of achievement of the Navy and the Marine Corps three times, the medal of the purple heart, the medal of the national defense service and the medal expeditionary of the global war on terrorism, among other awards, according to her military service history.
Heath described Kurpasi as a “great leader”. Kurpasi was Heath’s section commander in the U.S. Navy from 2012 to 2014, Heath said.
“He always led from the front. He always took care of his Marines,” Heath said.
After retiring from the Marines last fall, Kurpasi applied for a doctoral program at Stanford University. He did not enter the program, but was applying for other doctoral programs while in Ukraine, Heath said.
Kurpasi’s last military service was at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. He lived in Wilmington, North Carolina before leaving for Ukraine, another family friend, Jason Tokushige, told CNN.
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CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Clarissa Ward, and Barbara Starr contributed to this post.