Names, Stories, and Pictures of the Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Wire Reports | 3/22/03 | Wire Reports

[Diddle E. Squat]

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash:

Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine

Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill.

Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas

Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md.

The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.

[LibKill]

Heros all.

I am truly saddened by the loss of these heros. I won't forget them.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Yes, am waiting for more names to be released. Please post when found.

[Redleg Duke]

These are those we should honor, not the "journalists" sucking on the war for their big story!

A moment of silence for their "Last Roll Call"!

[Diddle E. Squat]

http://www.hoinews.com/news/headlines/267881.html

College Mourns Local War Hero
Staci Bivens

One of the first American casualties of the war with Iraq is a young pilot from Illinois.
Marine Captain Ryan Beaupre graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1995.
Beaupre was a numbers guy...who majored in accounting and loved to fly.
People who knew Beaupre describe him as a quiet leader who devoted his life to helping others.

Wesleyan faculty says he wasn't flashy...but as a student and a person...he inspired others... Leading by example.

“He was a very smart individual that you wanted on your side. And, when you think about who you want to protect your country, if you could put a face on that it Ryan Beaupre,” says Ann Harding Assistant Director of Illinois Wesleyan’s Career Center.
Beaupre worked in her office for two years…helping students prepare for the workforce.

“He was someone whose company you'd seek…a pleasant guy.. One who inspirers confidence and a real leader. And, I can see why the marines would want him,” tearfully explains Beaupre’s former advisor Jack Fields.

At the age of thirty Ryan Beaupre put his life on the line for his country...and his death put a local face on a war so far away.

“It changes you're perspective,” says the marine’s former accounting professor Jerry Olson. I have an 8 month-old baby daughter, and the first thing I did when I got home was hug her. Because, I can't imagine what Ryan's family is going through. It has to be devastating to them.

Ryan died after his helicopter crashed in Kuwait Thursday...now friends left behind are comforted by memories of him.

“He had a great smile. I think if you talked to other people about him, the smile is one thing and the red hair are the things you remember when you think about Ryan,” remembers Harding.

The marine captain grew up in St. Anne some 70 miles from the Twin Cities
He attended he went to school in the area and worked at state farm insurance before deciding to join the marines....

Now Beaupre will be remembered as a hero

“What I have read said he had accomplished their mission and that these men had not died in vain because they were coming home from their mission and had carried what they were supposed to do, so yes I believe they are all heroes,” says Olson.

Ryan leaves behind his parents and younger brother and sister.

Before shipping off to war…Beaupre told his sister that he wasn't afraid...that he was doing what he felt he needed to do.

Ryan Beaupre of St. Anne died a local hero at age 30.

[Diddle E. Squat]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1830715

Spring Branch family mourning death of Marine son in accident
By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle


The Houston father of a U.S. Marine killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait said his son had been a high school football player and honor student who later developed a passion to serve his country.

Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, died along with three other U.S. Marines and eight British Marines when their CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed Thursday about nine miles south of the Iraqi border town of Umm Qasr. Military officials said no hostile fire was reported in the area.

Kennedy's father, Mark D. Kennedy, said his son was proud to fight for Iraq's freedom.

"All he ever said was that it was his duty and he was looking forward to serving," Mark Kennedy said.

The Kennedy's Spring Branch-area home was somber Friday night. Mark Kennedy, his wife, Valerie, his daughter, Gretchen Helgeson, 28, and her husband, Brett Helgeson, 29, hugged one another.

They stared quietly at a photograph taken of Brian Kennedy in his Marine dress uniform.

"He was a very brave young man," said his stepmother, Valerie Kennedy.

Mark Kennedy said the military told him that the exact cause of the crash had not been determined, but that hostile fire was not suspected.

He said his son had been trained as a mechanic and was crew chief on the helicopter.

"Our son and brother proudly volunteered to serve in the United States Marine Corps," Mark Kennedy said in a prepared statement. "He gave his life in a effort to contribute to the freedom of the Iraqi people. We are so very proud of him and of his service to his country."

Mark Kennedy said his son grew up in Glenview, Ill. He was a starting guard on the football team at Glenbrook South High School and helped the team reach the conference championship game as a junior. He graduated from high school in 1995 and enrolled at Purdue University, where he studied mechanical engineering and played lacrosse.

In about 1997, he transferred to Texas Tech University and continued to study mechanical engineering. But his calling was to be a U.S. Marine, he told his father. A fellow student who had been a Marine became an inspiration to him, his father said. He left college and enlisted in 1999.

"He was very excited about it," he said.

Brian Kennedy was stationed at Camp Pendleton, a Marine base in Southern California near San Diego, his father said.

In addition to his father and sister, he is survived by his mother, Melissa Derbyshire, of Port Clyde, Maine. Derbyshire could not be reached for comment Friday night.

Mark Kennedy said he was uncertain when funeral services would be held.

[freepersup]

AP Photo/Family photo via Portland Press Herald Marine Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy

AP Photo/Family Photo via Morning Sentinel U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jay Thomas Aubin

AP Photo/The Baltimore Sun U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Waters-Bey

AP Photo/Beuapre Family Photo Marine pilot Ryan Beaupre

[Diddle E. Squat]

http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-marinekilled0321,0,6468866.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Baltimore man among those killed in Iraq

Kendall D. Waters-Bey was crew chief of chopper that crashed in desert

By Eric Siegel and Reginald Fields
Sun Staff
Originally published March 21, 2003, 11:20 PM EST



One of the first U.S. casualties of the Iraqi war was a 29-year- old Marine from Northeast Baltimore who joined the corps out of high school and leaves behind a wife and young son and a grieving family that mourns his loss while questioning the necessity of the conflict.

Staff Sgt. Kendall D. Waters-Bey, who grew up not far from Herring Run Park and attended Northern and Harbor City high schools, was among 12 servicemen -- eight British commandos and four U.S. Marines -- who died Thursday night when their helicopter crashed and burned about nine miles south of Umm Qasr, an Iraqi town near the Kuwait border.

"Man, I'm devastated," said Michael Waters-Bey, the Marine's father, who received the news every parent of a serviceman at war dreads, about 3 a.m. Friday. "He was my only son, my oldest child."

"I couldn't believe it until the Marines came to my door" to offer condolences early Friday afternoon, he said.

Michelle Waters, the oldest of the dead Marine's four sisters, criticized the U.S. government for starting the hostilities.

"It's all for nothing, that war could have been prevented," she said Friday night in the living room of the family home, tears running down her cheeks. "Now, we're out of a brother. [President] Bush is not out of a brother. We are."

Based at Camp Pendleton in California, Waters-Bey had taken his 10-year-old son, Kenneth, to live with him in San Diego last Thanksgiving. But he sent Kenneth back to Baltimore to live with the boy's mother when he received his orders to go to Kuwait in February.

The boy said that after moving to California his father took him to a gun range, showed him around the military base and played ball with him.

"I'm feeling sad now because my father is gone and I won't see him again," said Kenneth, who is in the fifth grade at Halstead Academy in Hillendale, Baltimore County.

Waters-Bey was the crew chief of the CH-46 Sea Knight, a bus- like helicopter with twin rotors used to fly troops to forward positions. The model is a Vietnam War-era aircraft that has been beset in recent years by mechanical difficulties.

Reports of the age and troubled history of helicopters like the one Waters-Bey was flying in when it crashed -- apparently by accident -- bothered his father. "The U.S. government owes me an explanation," Michael Waters-Bey said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a Marine spokesman issued statements of condolences Friday, as did Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

O'Malley, who called the Waters-Bey family early Friday evening, ordered flags at city buildings to fly at half staff in Waters-Bey's honor.

"On behalf of the citizens of Baltimore, I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family, many friends and all who have been touched by his life and untimely death," the mayor's statement said.

The other U.S. Marines killed in Thursday's crash were Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine; Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill., and Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston.

Tawanda Poteat, Kenneth's mother and Waters-Bey's first wife, was pregnant when Waters-Bey decided to join the Marines.

"He said he wanted to get away from being on the streets," Michael Waters-Bey said. "He wanted to do something positive to take care of his son."

A steady stream of friends called and stopped by the family's modest rowhouse Friday, many weeping openly, others holding back tears.

"Neighbors are taking it like family members. That's how good a person he was," Michael Waters-Bey said.

One neighbor, Darrell Holland, described Waters-Bey as "the nicest person you'd ever want to meet."

"The smile on his face tells you everything," Holland said. "You couldn't get a better brother, cousin or son."

At 6-feet-1 and over 200 pounds, family members said, Waters-Bey, whom they called Kenny, was an excellent swimmer who loved to barbecue ribs and make people laugh.

"He was always making jokes," said another sister, Shernell Waters-Bey. "He would cut up. He'd make funny faces. He'd walk funny."

Shernell Waters-Bey said she last talked to her brother before he left for Kuwait in early February.

"He said, 'Nellie, I love you. I'll see you when I get back,'" she recalled.

She said she was working the night shift at the Rite Aid warehouse in Harford County when a co-worker told her a helicopter had crashed and four U.S. servicemen had been killed.

"I wasn't thinking too much of it," she said. "Out of four people, I wouldn't ever imagine in my wildest dreams one of them would be my brother."

She learned of her brother's death when she arrived at the family home after getting off work and her mother, Angela Waters-Bey, was on the phone.

"I got to get off and tell Nellie," she heard her mother say.

"Tell Nellie what?" she asked.

"Kenny's gone," her mother said.

Poteat, Waters-Bey's first wife, said she had more of a premonition when she heard about the crash on television, even before the names of those killed were released.

That's because on Thursday, she and young Kenneth seemed to talk more than usual about Waters-Bey. Poteat had agreed she was going to try to get a computer for her son so that he could send e-mails to his father in the Iraqi desert.

"It was really odd for us to talk so much about his father on any day like we did that day," Poteat said. "Then when I heard about the crash, I just got a really bad feeling, like that's why his father was on his mind so much."

Waters-Bey is also survived by his wife, Belinda Waters-Bey of San Diego, Calif., and two other sisters, Sharita Waters-Bey and Nakia Waters, both of Baltimore.

Family members said they were told that Waters-Bey's body would be flown first to Germany and then to California. Funeral arrangements were pending.

Sun staff writers Lane Harvey Brown, Doug Donovan and Tanika White and wire services contributed to this article.

[freepersup]

U.S. officials did not immediately identify the two Marines killed in combat; both were members of the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

[freepersup]

The United States and Britain suffered their first casualties as they pushed into Iraq, with two U.S. Marines killed in combat and another dozen American and British Marines dying in a helicopter crash that appeared to be accidental.

A U.S. Marine was the first to die in action. His company was advancing on a burning oil pump station when he was shot in the stomach, a comrade said. President Bush was informed of the death early Friday and expressed his regrets.

He was from the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said Lt. Col. Neal Peckham, a British military spokesman in Kuwait. He died in the sweep on the Rumeila oil field in southern Iraq, where acrid smoke blackened the sky.
U.S. Central Command gave no other details.

The second Marine, also from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, died Friday at about 4 p.m. while fighting enemy Iraqi forces near Umm Qasr, a strategic port which came under allied control Friday.

[Diddle E. Squat]

--2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers, 30, of Harrison, Miss.

--Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles.




http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&ncid=716&e=12&u=/nm/20030322/ts_nm/iraq_usa_marines_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department on Saturday identified two U.S. Marines killed in action in Iraq on Friday as a lieutenant from Mississippi and a lance corporal from California.

The Pentagon said 2nd Lt. Therrel Childers, 30, of Harrison, Miss., was assigned to the 5th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, of Los Angeles, was assigned to the 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Could we add the names of all of the fallen heroes. I don't feel right excluding the names of the Brits and the Aussie. They are no less heroes because the were born someplace other than USA. I hope we can get all of the names and I hope God brings peace to all of the families affected. God bles the USA, God bless the liberators of Iraq and God Bless President Bush.

[freepersup]

Seven crew members are feared dead after two Royal Navy Sea King early warning helicopters were today involved in a mid-air collision over international waters in the Gulf, UK Central Command in Qatar said. The Sea Kings went down at around 4.30am local time (1.30am UK time).

Westcountry crews from the Royal Navy base at Culdrose are currently serving in the Gulf. The camp, in Cornwall, has a fleet of Sea King helicopters. It is not known where the crashed aircraft were based.

Yesterday eight Royal Marines from the Plymouth-based 3 Commando Brigade and four Americans died when their helicopter crashed in Kuwait.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Sorry, not trying to exclude anyone, it is just I haven't yet found their names. Will post as soon as I can.

If anyone finds their names or pictures, please post.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Oh, I am sorry I did not mean that you were trying to do anything wrong. I should have re-read for tone before I posted. This thread was a good idea.

[freepersup]

Reporting- per ABC radio news- now identifying KIA aboard UK Royal Navy's Sea King helo that crashed into another UK Sea King helo over water, presumed lost at sea, as: US Naval Officer- Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, age 27, La Mesa, Ca.,

[Diddle E. Squat]

No problem, I understood your point the first time, and it is a good one. The British press should be sending out Sunday stories within the next few hours.

So far I have a count of 7 Americans, all identified here, and 14 British(2 accidents involving 3 copters total). Let's hope that the count doesn't rise.

[amom]

believe that report is in reference to the 4 soldiers(not identified) reported killed in S. Central Iraq this morning.

Oh. OK thanks for the clarification.

[amom]

Let's hope that the count doesn't rise.

I'm with you on that one.

[freepersup]

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IDENTIFIES AMERICAN OFFICER KILLED IN ROYAL NAVY HELICOPTER COLLISION

The Department of Defense announced today the identity of the American officer killed when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided over international waters March 22. Killed was Navy Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, 27, of La Mesa, Calif.

Adams had been assigned as an exchange officer with the Royal Navy's 849 Squadron since October 2002. The squadron's detachment is currently embarked on the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

[mrustow]

Let's update this thread as names are released. Their ultimate sacrifice for others and in service of our country should not be forgotten. We will forever be in debt to them, and lift prayers for comfort for their families on their loss.

I salute, and grieve for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Lest we forget.