'Died as a hero'

Times Leader ^ | 4/28/2004 | BONNIE ADAMS

[Born Conservative]

WILKES-BARRE - Maggie Jones said her sister used to stay up late and listen to student disc jockey Sherwood Baker's voice on the King's College radio station.

"She thought he (had) the most handsome voice ever," Maggie said.

Debra started calling the station while Sherwood was on the air, requesting songs and chatting with him. Maggie came home one day and Sherwood was at their house with Debra, the woman he would eventually marry.

Maggie and her husband, Mark Jones, reminisced Wednesday about their brother-in-law, one of two soldiers killed Monday in a building explosion in Baghdad.

Maggie said military officials came to the Bakers' Shawnee Avenue home in Plymouth on Monday to notify Debra that her husband had been killed in action. Maggie said her sister told them they were mistaken because there could be other Sherwood Bakers.

"She's still having a very difficult time believing this is happening," Maggie said. The Bakers' 9-year-old son, James, and one of Maggie's children were with Debra when she received the news.

The Joneses were at the 109th Field Artillery Armory on Wednesday for a press conference regarding Sherwood's death. "Basically we're taking it one hour at a time," Mark said.

National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver said Baker was killed while manning a machine gun atop one of several Humvees outside the building. Baker was a 109th soldier serving with the 103rd Armor Regiment of Scranton.

Maj. Robert Langol of the 103rd said Baker, 30, and other soldiers were providing security outside the building. Survey group members searched for chemical munitions inside. An explosion at 10:30 a.m. leveled the front of the one-story building.

"The specific cause of the explosion is not known. We do not believe the building had been booby-trapped," Langol said.

"We know he was watching the backs of his fellow soldiers," Mark said.

Maggie said Baker loved her children, ages 4 and 8, and was a kid himself. "You know he's part of them," she said.

Mark described him as the type of man to jump in the pool with his clothes on or roll around on the floor with the children. "That's his joy, children," he said.

Maggie told her children that it's all right to be angry or sad because adults are feeling that way, too. "We've told them Uncle Sherwood died as a hero."

"We're trying to be as honest as possible with them," Mark said.

Mark told how Baker kept his son home from school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to teach him about the slain civil rights leader.

"There are things that great people do and things that great people are. Sherwood was both," Mark said.

Baker has been awarded the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Cleaver said Gov. Ed Rendell will ensure he receives the state's highest military honor, the Pennsylvania Meritorious Service Medal.

"We now grieve the loss of one who all of us would consider a brother," said Maj. Kevin Miller of the 109th.

Baker's body was expected to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Wednesday night. Mark Jones said funeral arrangements are pending.

Maggie said she talked to her brother-in-law four days before he was killed. "He was making fun of me," she said. Baker teased her about a letter she had written to him but had not yet mailed and had said he'd probably receive it in June or July.

Family members and Baker's co-workers at the Luzerne County Mental Health/Mental Retardation office said he wrote and e-mailed them often. Sometimes he asked for food and other things for his fellow soldiers. Maggie would like people to continue to donate items for soldiers.

Mark said it is a concern that the family might yet receive letters Baker wrote from Iraq. But he then added, "It would be one more memory we could cherish."