Staff Sergeant Eric Fidelis Alva (born December 19, 1970) was the first Marine seriously injured in the Iraq War. On March 21, 2003, he was in charge of 11 Marines in a supply unit when he stepped on a land mine and lost his right leg. Alva then served as the Grand Marshall of the 2008 Chicago Gay and Lesbian Pride parade on Sunday, June 29, 2008. When asked by news interviewer Paula Zahn: "Were you ever attracted to a "soldier" in the field?" Alva replied: "I never took my personal life to work."[citation needed]