Compassion, courses and the Internet are helping the mother and grandmother of a Marine from Vicksburg assemble a book of condolences for the family of another who has died in Iraq.

Charlotte Kappler and Ruth Pugh are creating the book for the family of Master Sgt. Brian P. McAnulty, who died Dec. 11.

Their inspiration stems, in part, from the fact they are the mother and grandmother, respectively, of Lance Cpl. Josh Pugh.

Also, Kappler said, she started making her first condolence book about a month ago for another Marine’s family to test skills she was learning in Internet Web page design and visual communications courses at Hinds Community College.

&#8220I got to thinking, ‘I would like to make the books because I had learned how to do all this stuff,’” Kappler said, adding that she found online a group that adds a level of organization to the effort.

When Kappler learned of McAnulty’s death, she knew immediately that she’d volunteer to research his life and enlist others to prepare a book for his family.

McAnulty, a 1985 graduate of Warren Central High School and a 19-year Marine died when a CH-53 helicopter in which he was a passenger crashed just after takeoff in Anbar Province, several miles away from the Iraq-Syria border, the U.S. Department of Defense said. He was 39.

&#8220I e-mailed them very fast and said that I wanted to do it,” Kappler said of the online group.

Most of the contributions to the McAnulty book have come from friends – or friends of friends – and all or nearly all have come by e-mail, she said.

&#8220We’ve got e-mails from a lady whose son was injured – he was on the same helicopter (as McAnulty) – and it talked about how good he was,” Kappler said. &#8220And he stayed with him until the people got there to take them to the hospital.”

A classified ad the mother and daughter placed in The Vicksburg Post asks for information and memories to be sent to Kappler.

&#8220I think people feel that they need to know him, but they don’t need to know him to do this,” Pugh said. &#8220Anybody can do it.”

Kappler said she’s found that it can be difficult to develop a personalized condolence for each family. Kappler said contributions &#8220can be poems with graphics or just something to show the family you care.”

The first condolence book Kappler and Pugh prepared was for 19-year-old Canton, Ohio, Marine Pvt. Heath Warner, who died Nov. 11. Kappler said she expects it to be ready in about a week. It has about 50 pages of condolences, she said.

&#8220I hope nothing happens to my son and somebody has to do one for me,” Kappler said. &#8220But I think I would like getting something like this. You don’t think about it until your family’s in it. And we have a whole new family, a Marine Corps family.”

Kappler said her son was deployed to Iraq in June and that since then his unit, the Third Battalion, Second Marines, has lost 11 Marines, &#8220and he’s known all of them.”

McAnulty’s fellow Marines serving in northwestern Anbar Province honored his life Dec. 17 during a memorial service at a Marine base in Al Qa’im, Iraq, a release from the Marine Corps says.

&#8220The Marines massed in a military formation in front of a memorial for McAnulty – a Kevlar helmet set atop a rifle stuck bayonet-first into a sand bag,” the release says. &#8220Hung from the pistol grip of the rifle were McAnulty’s dog tags. His combat boots were set in front of the rifle; a portrait of the 39-year-old man with ‘an infectious smile’ was displayed behind the memorial.”

Known as &#8220Top” to his fellow Marines, McAnulty was the operations chief for a company of more than 140 Marines.

McAnulty is the second member of his battalion, 3rd Battalion, to have died in the region since it arrived, in September, the release says. The 3rd Battalion is based in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

McAnulty was the first U.S. servicemember from Vicksburg to die in the war, which started in March 2003. His death brought the total for the U.S. military since then to 2,937, including 39 listed as being from Mississippi.

Services and interment were in Kernersville, N.C., near where his parents, brother and sister-in-law now reside.