Updated at 1:36 p.m., Monday, November 1, 2004
7 Marines based in Hawai'i killed in Iraq
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
The Pentagon today said Lance Cpl. Jeremy D. Bow, 20, of Lemoore, Calif.; Lance Cpl. Michael P. Scarborough, 28, of Washington, Ga.; Lance Cpl. Travis A. Fox, 25, of Cowpens, S.C.; and Cpl. Christopher J. Lapka, 22, of Peoria, Ariz., all with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment out of Kane'ohe Bay, died due to enemy action in Al Anbar province. The identities of the other three soldiers killed have yet to be released.
Nine Marines were killed and nine were wounded west of Baghdad, a region that includes Fallujah. U.S. forces are preparing a major offensive against the insurgent stronghold and have been attacking the city with air strikes and artillery.
The deaths mark the first fatalities for Hawaiçi Marines in Iraq from enemy action.
On Oct. 24, lance Cpl. Richard P. Slocum, 19, of Saugus, Calif., was killed in a noncombat-related vehicle accident near Abu Ghraib.
Nearly 1,000 Hawaiçi Marines with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment arrived about two weeks ago in the Fallujah area.
About 900 Marines and sailors with 1/3 — as well as six CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters with Heavy Marine Helicopter squadron 463 and approximately 70 Marines from the squadron — deployed with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Lance Cpl. Jeffrey B. Owens, 21, a supply clerk and native of Harlan, Ky., is recovering at Camp Fallujah after recently being wounded in a rocket attack on the base, and 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Matthew J. Oliver, a communications wireman, was injured in a mortar attack.
About 160 Marines with the 3rd Radio Battalion at Käneçohe Bay who are communications and electronic warfare specialists deployed to Iraq early this year and operated in Fallujah and Ramadi. Last year, 250 of the radio battalion Marines deployed to Kuwait and Iraq.
The Hawaiçi Marine deployments are still not as large as in 1991, when about 7,600 Käne'ohe Marines were deployed during Operation Desert Storm. Hawaiçi Marines with Task Force Taro were the first to cross the mined Kuwait-Iraqi border.
