http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/international/worldspecial/23CASU.html?ex=1049000400&en=a611f5b8b1d4a40e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE Portraits Are Emerging of 2 Marines Killed in Iraq
By DAVID W. CHEN
Therrel S. Childers, it seemed, was always on the move.
As a child, he moved around the world with his father, Joseph, who was a Navy Seabee. At times, the experience was harrowing: he lived in Tehran during the American hostage crisis, but his family managed to get out.
As a young man, he enlisted in the Marines, and did so well that the Marine Corps sent him to the Citadel, where he made the dean's list. But whenever he visited his parents in Wyoming, he could not sit still, either: he was always training for marathons, it seemed, or doing 100-mile bicycle rides, or camping and hiking in the snow, or running up steep hills.
As a marine, he lived an itinerant life, too, with a passport that would have been the envy of National Geographic. He fought in the Persian Gulf, during Desert Storm. He spent time in Africa, in Geneva, and most recently, in southern Iraq.
On Friday, Second Lt. Therrel S. Childers, 30, was one of two marines who were killed in Iraq, both of whom were assigned to Camp Pendleton in California. The other Marine who died was Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez. As of yesterday afternoon, little information was available about Corporal Gutierrez, other than the fact that he was 22, originally from Los Angeles, and was assigned to the 2nd battalion, of the 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
But by early afternoon, a clearer portrait was emerging of Lieutenant Childers from friends and relatives, who called him Shane, his middle name, and spoke in unison about how decent and generous and capable he was.
Lieutenant Childers was the middle of three children in a family with deep, and proud, military roots. In addition to his father, who served in Vietnam, Lieutenant Childers's younger brother, Sam, served in the military, as did their grandfather, said John Van Valin, a close friend and neighbor of the family.
A cousin that Lieutenant Childers was close to may now be aboard an aircraft carrier near the Korean peninsula, said Jackie Brown, who is the mother-in-law of Lieutenant Childers's sister, Sandra. And Sandra's husband, Richard Brown, is in the Army. In fact, he is now at Fort Hood, in Texas, and is scheduled to be deployed to the Iraq region any day, according to Ms. Brown.
According to the Department of Defense, Lieutenant Childers's hometown was Harrison County, Miss. And while he graduated from high school there, according to family and friends, it is not clear how much time he spent there, or what kind of attachment he had to that place.
There were many places around the world that the Childers family called home, but there were probably few years more trying than the ones they spent in Iran.
During the turbulent time of the shah's last days in power, Lieutenant Childers's father was initially taken captive by Iranian militants, according to Mr. Van Valin, but then released. And whenever the children ventured outside, their mother had to change their appearances.
"The boys were blond-headed, so she had to dye their hair," he said.
Neither Ms. Brown nor Mr. Van Valin was sure of what Lieutenant Childers specialized in as a marine. But Mr. Van Valin said that he did serve as a marine security guard at one point.
Lieutenant Childers was single. And he loved to exercise. He was an accomplished runner, competing in several races around the country. He had climbed Mount Hood, in Oregon, with some marine buddies. When he visited his parents, in Powell, Wyo., he like to keep fit by running up a steep hill that local residents called "the Bench."
"For a normal guy like me, it would be torture," said Mr. Van Valin. "But it was fun to him."
Lieutenant Childers had his flair for renaissance living, too. He loved to read, particularly anything on the history of the Marine Corps. He also wanted to train horses someday, not for rodeos or racing, but just as all-purpose animals that could be used on rugged trails.
Then there was the cooking. One time, Mr. Van Valin said, Lieutenant Childers prepared an unusual dinner: goose.
"He had his cookbooks out, and how he prepared this thing, I don't know," Mr. Van Valin said. "But it was excellent. I've eaten goose before, and it didn't thrill me, but this was excellent."