Pennsylvania Democrat, Rep. John Murtha dies at 77 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va.

John Murtha was born June 17, 1932. The former newspaper delivery boy left college in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division. He settled in Johnstown, then volunteered for Vietnam, where he served as an intelligence officer and earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

He was serving in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg when he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration's handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. In his 2004 book titled "From Vietnam to 9/11, Murtha wrote, "Ever since I was a young boy, I had two goals in life — I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corps and a member of Congress."

The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering from complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., with his family at his bedside.

John Murtha was survived by his wife of nearly 55 years, Joyce, and three children.