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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 16, 2007

Two based in Isles killed in Iraq

Advertiser Staff

Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris

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Army Pfc. Nickolas A. Tanton

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Two more Hawai'i-based servicemen died in Iraq this week, officials said.

A 19-year-old Kane'ohe Bay Marine was killed Wednesday in a bomb attack, and a 24-year-old Schofield Barracks soldier died Tuesday in Iraq from noncombat-related injuries.

Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris, of Crimora, Va., was in the vicinity of Haqlaniyah northwest of Baghdad in Anbar province when a bomb went off at a security checkpoint, TV station WDBJ-7 of Roanoke, Va., reported.

Morris was scheduled to return home next month, the station said.

Lance Cpl. Steven Eastburn, a Kane'ohe Bay Marine who served with Morris and is recovering in Hawai'i from a sniper shot to the upper arm, said Morris "was always joking around, laughing and making everybody feel better. He did have that quality to him."

Morris played in the marching band at Wilson Memorial High School and joined the Marines in September 2005. He reported to Hawai'i in March 2006, and left for Iraq in September.

Twenty-two Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Kane'ohe Bay have been killed on the seven-month deployment.

Army Pfc. Nickolas A. Tanton of San Antonio, Texas, was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks.

His death in Kirkuk, Iraq, is under investigation.

Tanton was "a family guy with a big heart" who loved to have a good time with his family and friends, Tanton's family said in a statement, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper.

"Nickolas' life was never lived as a political statement or as part of any collective. He was an individual who believed that life was meant to be lived, and he meant to live it," the family said in a statement released by Fort Sam Houston.

Tanton joined the Army in 2005.