Marines honor 15 killed in Iraq

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | Tuesday, December 2, 2003 10:18 PM PST ∞

The haunting notes of "Taps" sounded one more time Tuesday at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station as Marines and family gathered to remember 15 men of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing who died during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The 45-minute ceremony in front of the air wing's headquarters was a salute to their sacrifice and an opportunity for family members of those lost in war to meet the men and women their loved ones served with.

"The 15 Marines whose sacrifice we honor this day didn't pay just any price, and their families gathered here among us haven't borne just any burden," said Maj. Gen. James Amos, the unit's commander. "Each has given our country a full measure of sacrifice. There is simply nothing left for them to give."

About 1,000 Marines and 75 friends and family members attended the 10 a.m. ceremony.

A huge American flag flapped gently behind the row of inverted rifles capped with Kevlar or airmen's helmets. An empty pair of boots topped with a name plate marked each Marine's memorial.

"The 15 sets of rifles and helmets and boots arrayed before you are solely symbolic," the general said. "They are tangible reminders of a battle for liberty that began in a country halfway around the world eight and a half months ago."

Media were corralled and kept at arms length from the families and the service members who were closest to the fallen Marines, allowing few personal details of the fallen Marines to escape the parade field.

The ceremony was solemn, spare and official.

Marines said they came to honor their friends and comrades and remember the six fateful days that took them away.

March 21

On the opening day of the ground invasion, four Marines from HMM-268 "Red Foxes" were ferrying British commandos in a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter along the Faw Peninsula when the copter crashed just south of Basra. All eight British soldiers, and all four Marine pilots and crew died in the crash, including Maj. Jay Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine; Capt. Ryan Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill.; Staff Sgt. Kendall Waters-Bey, 29, of Baltimore, Md; and Cpl. Brian Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas.

March 24

Lance Cpl. Thomas Blair, 24, of Broken Arrow, Okla., was killed in a firefight near An Nasiriyah. Blair was part of the East Coast based 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion attached to the 3rd Air Wing.

March 28

Sgt. Fernando Padilla Ramirez, 26, of San Luis, Ariz., died after his convoy of helicopter support crews was ambushed during a movement between the towns of Qalat Sukkar and As Shatra.

March 30

Capt. Aaron Contreras, 31, of Sherwood, Oregon, Sgt. Michael Lalush, 23, of Troutville, Va., and Sgt. Brian McGinnis, 23 of St. Georges, Del., were killed when their UH-1N Huey helicopter crashed during a refueling and resupply mission near Jaliba air base in southern Iraq.

April 4

Capt. Benjamin Swammis, 29, of Rohoboth, Mass., and Capt. Travis Ford, 30, of Ogalala, Neb., died when their AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter was shot down during combat near Aziziyah, a town on the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad.

May 19

Four members of HMM-364 "Purple Foxes" were lifting off the ground in a CH-46 to support a security operation when the copter crashed into a canal near Al Hillah. The pilots, Capt. Andrew LaMont, 31, of Eureka, Calif., and Capt. Timothy Ryan, and crew members Staff Sgt. Aaron White, 27, of Shawnee, Okla., and Lance Cpl. Jason Moore, 21, of San Marcos, were killed in the accident.

After the ceremony Tuesday ---- which concluded with three helicopter flyovers and a 21-gun salute ---- families and friends mingled around the memorials of empty boots, rifles and helmets.

Some wept, many embraced and talked about the men they lost.

Dressed in a white- and-pink-flowered dress, a small girl of about 3 stood before the marker of Sgt. Ford. A woman in black draped the Marine's dog tags over the girl's tiny neck as she played in the grass.

Another boy slipped the dog tags of Staff Sgt. Waters-Bey off the pistol grip of the rifle marking his memorial and hooked its chain over his head to drape down his white dress shirt. Afterwards, he walked silently away from the field with other family members.

Before leaving, Amos warned the families that there would be more sacrifice to come.

"The fighting is not over," Amos said. "Family members that are here with us today, you need to know that the Marines are going back to Iraq. And we're going back in to finish the work that your loved ones began."

Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at (760) 740-5442 or dmortenson@nctimes.com.