Since March 20, 287 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. As of this week, total deaths among coalition forces are 337. More soldiers have lost their lives since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat operations were completed, than during the actual war (148 compared with 139). The Associated Press has calculated the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at 3,240, based on records from 60 of Iraq’s 124 hospitals–an admittedly incomplete survey. On Wednesday, the Web site iraqbodycount.org put civilian deaths at between 6,118 and 7,836.
Illinois has lost 14 men since the fighting began. Some were planning on long military careers, some figured enlisting was a way to pay for college, some quit good jobs to fight. They range in age from 19 to 38, from privates in the Army to a Marine captain. They leave behind three wives and seven children.
In chronological order:
On March 21 Ryan Beaupre, a captain with the 3rd Marine Airlift Wing, died when the helicopter he was flying crashed nine miles from the Iraqi border. Beaupre, 30, was an accountant at State Farm in Bloomington and a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University. According to the Bloomington Pantagraph Beaupre had often talked to friends and colleagues about his dream of flying. Evidently it was this dream that led him to quit State Farm to join the Marines in Iraq.
Jonathan Gifford, 30, and his Marine battalion were securing a bridge on the outskirts of the southeastern Iraqi city of An Nasiriyah on March 23 when they were ambushed by enemy forces. Gifford, a private, was one of 36 soldiers who died that day, one of the deadliest for coalition forces. Gifford joined the Marines in 2001 after talking about doing it for years. The Decatur native leaves behind a four-year-old daughter.
Evan James [see accompanying story]
Brandon Rowe, an Army specialist from Roscoe, joined the military because he thought it could advance his career in computers. On March 31 he was killed by enemy artillery near Najaf, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Rowe was one of the first members of the 101st Airborne Division to die in battle.
On April 4 Chicago native Edward Smith, a first sergeant with the 1st Marine Division, suffered wounds from battle in central Iraq. Smith, 38, was transported to Doha, Qatar, where he died. He was a police officer in Anaheim, California, and left behind a wife and three children. Smith had been a Marine for 20 years but had never seen combat. His wife told a reporter that he looked forward to testing his battle skills in Iraq.
Staff Sergeant Lincoln Hollinsaid of Malden had building in his blood. He was employed at a construction company when he joined the Army in 1995 and, fittingly, hooked up with the 11th Engineer Battalion, a construction outfit. On April 7 Hollinsaid was killed by a rocket-powered grenade that struck the crane he was driving. “His main concern was that the young soldiers under him were properly trained,” his father, Dan Hollinsaid, said. “He wanted to take care of them.”
Jakub Kowalik, 21, was a lance corporal for the Marine’s 1st Maintenance Battalion. A Polish native, Kowalik came to the United States when he was 10, and his family settled in Schaumburg. He joined the Marines while in high school, only a few months before September 11, 2001. On May 12, he and another Marine were handling a live ordnance when it exploded, killing them both.
Nicholas Kleiboeker, 19, of Odin joined the Marines while in high school. It was all he ever wanted to do, said a friend. On May 13, while hunkering down in a munitions bunker for the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, the bunker caught fire and exploded.
Tim Ryan, a first lieutenant with the Marines, was on his way to provide supplies for a non-combat outfit on May 19 when his helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff. Ryan, 30, and five other Marines from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing died in the crash, including one Marine who drowned while attempting to save the crew. Ryan, who was from Aurora, majored in music at Illinois State University and played percussion in the Marine’s Drum and Bugle Corps. He was married with no children.
On June 13 Staff Sergeant Andrew Pokomy, 30, died when his vehicle jumped off the side of a road after returning from a patrol shift near Asad, Iraq. Pokomy, from Naperville, joined the Army as a mechanic at 17. He was an Army Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993. He met his wife while stationed in Germany. He is survived by her and their three children.
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On June 26 Cory Hubbell, of Urbana, died in Kuwait after being hospitalized with breathing problems the day before. Hubbell, 20, was a masonry and carpentry specialist with the Army’s 46th Engineer Battalion and joined the service right out of high school in 2001. The Army is investigating numerous reports of respiratory problems among troops stationed in Iraq and Kuwait.
Brandon Ramsey of Calumet City, a private first class with the 933rd Military Police Company, died on August 8 when the vehicle he was in rolled over after chasing a suspicious car. Ramsey, 21, joined the Illinois National Guard as a way to pay for college, his brother Vaughn Ramsey said. “As far as leaving, there was no way out of it. He was never one to back away from a challenge.”
On August 8 Private Matthew Bush of the Army’s 10th Armored Calvary Regiment was relieved from duties to catch up on sleep after suffering symptoms of exhaustion. When a fellow soldier went to wake Bush up, he couldn’t be revived. His father, Randy Bush, speculated that his son died from a heart-related illness. Bush, 20, was from East Alton, where he played high school football. Part of the reason Bush joined the Army was because his 19-year-old sister, Deann, recently joined. Deann escorted her brother’s body home.
Christopher Sisson of North Riverside stepped onboard a Blackhawk helicopter
en route to an assault mission in Iraq. The helicopter then crashed on takeoff.
Sisson, 20, a private first class with the 325th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
died on September 2 as a result of his injuries. Ten others onboard survived.
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2003.
