In what is believed to be the first known fatality of an American citizen serving in Ukraine, a former US Marine was killed with Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, according to his relatives.
CNN spoke with Rebecca Cabrera. Willy Joseph Cancel, her 22-year-old son, was slain Monday while working for a military contracting firm in Ukraine. Cancel has most recently worked as a prison officer in Tennessee and had served in the Marine Corps from 2017 to 21.
Cabrera said her son agreed to work for the private military contractor just before the war in Ukraine began on February 24. He agreed to go to Ukraine, she informed CNN.
“He wanted to travel over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to limit it there so it didn’t come here,” she explained.
Cabrera stated that her son’s body has yet to be discovered.
She stated, “They haven’t found his body.” “The men that were with him are trying, but it was either seize his body or get killed, but we’d wait for him to return to us.”
Her son traveled to Poland on March 12 and entered Ukraine soon after, she added. He was fighting alongside troops from a variety of nationalities, she claimed.
According to Matthew Davio, a spokeswoman for the private prison business CoreCivic, Cancel worked at a private jail in Tennessee from May 2021 until January. The medium-security Trousdale Turner Correctional Center is located about an hour northeast of Nashville.
“As a correctional officer, Mr. Cancel served his state and society by assisting offenders in participating in life-changing reentry programs in a safe and secure setting.” In a statement, Davio added, “We are grateful for his service and devastated by his passing.”
Cancel served as a rifleman in the Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. According to Marine Corps spokesperson Maj. Jim Stenger, he was issued a poor conduct discharge after being found guilty of breaching a legal general order.
Stenger stated that he had never been sent to a conflict zone. There was no more information about the misdemeanor conviction.
The death of Cancel has not been confirmed by the United States. The State Department stated on Friday that it was aware of the accusations and is “closely monitoring the situation,” but that it couldn’t say more because of “privacy concerns.”
“We reiterate that due to the active armed conflict in Ukraine and Russian government security officials singling out U.S. citizens in Ukraine, U.S. citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe to do so using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options,” the State Department said.
Brittany Cancel, Cancel’s widow, told Fox News that her husband leaves behind a little son and that she considers him a hero.
Brittany Cancel stated, “My husband did die in Ukraine.” “He went there because he wanted to serve others; it had always been his main aim in life.”
Her spouse volunteered to travel to Ukraine, but he also wanted to be a police officer or a firefighter, she said.
She told Fox, “He had ambitions and aspirations of becoming a police officer or joining the FDNY.” “Of course, when he heard about what was going on in Ukraine, he was eager to help.”
The war is thought to have killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians. Noncombatants from the United States have also been killed, including a documentary filmmaker who was killed when his vehicle was shot at a checkpoint and a man who was killed while waiting in a bread line.
