Memorial Service for Matt Manoukian Is Saturday

A memorial service will be held Saturday for U.S. Marine Corps , who was killed in Afghanistan Friday.

The service for Manoukian, who was , will take place Aug. 18 at the gymnasium at , 3:00 p.m. He was an alumnus of the Class of 2001.

Manoukian was serving in the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He had been fatally wounded, with two other special operations troops, .

According to the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Manoukian died around 2 a.m. local time in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Manoukian is the son of Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Socrates "Pete" Manoukian and Associate Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian of the California Court of Appeal for the Sixth District.

Among his commendations for past exemplary service, Matt Manoukian had received two Purple Hearts, according to the Marine Corps.

Manoukian had previously served as a platoon commander for the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment in Camp Pendleton and had also served in Iraq, according to the Marine Corps. 

When he underwent training at Marines Special Operations Command, only 40 of 100 completed the program, and Manoukian was in the top five, his family said on its website memorial to Matt Manoukian. After his third tour and completion of his MARSOC training, Manoukian requested to be redeployed as a team leader in Special Operations, rather than become and executive officer, according to his family. He was assigned a team that deployed to Afghanistan in May 2012.

He was both an airborne parachutist and a 1st degree Black Belt.

On Aug. 14, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and California's First Lady extended condolences to the family and honored Capt. Manoukian. The governor ordered flags flown at half staff.

According to the family's memorial website, in lieu of flowers, the Manoukian family requests contributions be made to the Captain Matthew Patrick Manoukian Tribute scholarship fund in honor of Matt (St. Francis High School – Class of ’01)

Checks can be made payable to Saint Francis High School, referencing the “Captain Matthew Patrick Manoukian Tribute Fund” and mailed to:

Kevin Makley, President
St. Francis High School
1885 Miramonte Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94040-4098

The federal tax ID number for St. Francis High School is: 94-1337628

For more information, visit the Captain Matthew Patrick Manoukian website.

—Bay City News contributed to this article