CAMP PENDLETON -- A 23-year Marine veteran who had achieved the highest enlisted rank in the Corps died Wednesday in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

Sgt. Maj. Joseph J. Ellis, 40, of Ashland, Ohio, was the sergeant major of Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 15 Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is a special operations team. The expeditionary unit is part of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force.

According to biographical information from the unit, Ellis joined the Marines in 1984 and moved up the enlisted ranks, mostly in reconnaissance units. He served in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm, and later served in Hawaii, North Carolina and on Camp Pendleton.

Little information about Ellis' death was available Friday evening. He died the same day and in the same region as the downing of a helicopter carrying seven U.S. troops, including two Marine pilots. It was not immediately clear whether Ellis died in the helicopter incident or elsewhere in the Anbar province.

His death brings the number of Camp Pendleton- and Miramar-based Marines to die in the war to at least 324.

Family members of Ellis could not be reached for comment. Ellis' military biography sketches out a career in communications and reconnaissance. He served as a radio operator and supervisor in Japan, and a communications instructor for an infantry school on Camp Pendleton.

After spending more than a year in the Middle East during the first Gulf War, he returned to Camp Pendleton as a company communications chief. He served a recruiting duty stint in Cleveland, just north of his hometown of Ashland, for three years, and then served a tour in Hawaii as a radio chief and a battalion communications chief.

As he continued to move through the ranks, he served as an infantry school instructor until the start of the Iraq war in 2003, when he returned to Iraq with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. He was named the battalion's sergeant major in December of 2004.

Ellis' awards, according to his military biography, include the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with combat distinction and one gold star, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with one gold star and the Combat Action Ribbon with one gold star.