Army Pfc. Kevin C. Ott

Remember Our Heroes

Army Pfc. Kevin C. Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio

Pfc Ott was assigned to Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Sill, Okla.; killed in action in Iraq sometime between June 25, 2003 and June 28.


Ott and Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, with the same unit, had been listed as missing in action after they failed to respond to a radio check June 25 south of Balad, Iraq. A search party was sent to the location of their last radio transmission, but was unable to find the soldiers. Their remains were located in Taji, Iraq, on June 28.

Pfc. Kevin Ott had worked with a youth group and sang in the church choir in his hometown of Orient, Ohio. He decided to join the military after the Sept. 11 attacks, and even when he was deployed to Iraq, his father says, he wasn’t afraid of dying.

“He was completely at peace,” said Charles Ott.

Ott’s body along with that of another soldier were discovered June 28 near Baghdad, three days after they were reported missing some 25 miles away. Ott was part of an artillery unit based at Fort Sill.

Pam Condo, 49, remembered the time her brother gave her a ride on his beloved motorcycle. “I was afraid because I knew he loved to go really fast, but to my surprise, he went really slow because he knew I was scared,” she said.

Ott played defensive end for a season at Bluffton College, was on the football and basketball teams in high school, and coached his nephew’s Little League team, Condo said.

His calls and letters during the war were reserved, but his family could tell he was proud. “He absolutely loved Army life,” Charles Ott said.

Army Specialist Joseph D. Suell

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Army Specialist Joseph D. Suell, 24, of Lufkin, Texas

Spc. Suell was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters and Service Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Sill, Okla.; killed June 16 in Todjie, Iraq. He died from a non-combat related cause.

Lufkin soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

LUFKIN, Texas — Fort Hood officials have notified family members that a 24-year-old Lufkin man was killed in Iraq.

Fort Hood spokesman Cecil Green said personnel from the Central Texas post went to Lufkin to notify relatives of Spc. Joseph Suell’s death. Suell was assigned to 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Okla., Green said.

The Defense Department said Suell’s death was from a non-combat related cause. According to a news release on the CENTCOM Web site, the soldier died in the Taji area of Iraq.

He was evacuated to an Army medical facility for treatment, where he later died.

Suell had written a letter to his mother, Rena Mathis, that she received the day he died, The Lufkin Daily News reported June 18.

Suell’s aunt, Deborah McKay, said Suell told his mother he was ready to come home. McKay said Suell wrote that he and his comrades did not have electricity, or water to bathe, and that he was afraid for his life because of snipers.

“He had things on there like, People think the war is over, and it’s not,’’ she said.

Suell is survived by his wife, Rebecca, and their two daughters.

He graduated from Lufkin High School in 1997, and had been a member of the Panther basketball team. McKay said she believed Suell was in his third year in the Army.

Army Specialist Joseph D. Suell was killed on 06/16/03.

Army Sgt. Atanacio Haro Marin

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Army Sgt. Atanacio Haro Marin, 27, of Baldwin Park, Calif.

Sgt. Haro-Marin was assigned to Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas; killed by enemy south of Balad, Iraq, June 3. Marin was manning a checkpoint when his unit came under enemy fire from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

Baldwin Park soldier died from enemy fire in Iraq

Associated Press

BALDWIN PARK, Calif. — An Army sergeant ambushed and killed this week in Iraq was remembered by his family as a proud and courageous soldier who was living out a long-held dream of serving in the U.S. military.

Atanasio Haro Marin Jr. — whose name was spelled Atanacio Haromarin in a military announcement — died June 3 when his checkpoint was attacked with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades.

“It takes a lot of courage to serve,” said Ismael Haro Marin, his older brother. “We are all going to miss him, we are missing him already. We wish it was a dream. We are trying to wake up to reality. There is so much pain.”

Marin, 27, known as “Nacho” to his family, was born in Momax, Mexico, and lived there with his mother while his father, Atanasio, worked in California picking fruit and doing construction jobs to support seven children.

The family reunited in Los Angeles when he was 2, later moving to suburban Baldwin Park east of the city.

He competed on the Sierra Vista High School track team and also ran in a Los Angeles Marathon.

Upon graduation, he joined the National Guard over the objections of his parents, the family told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. When his tour of duty ended, he transferred to the Army, and was making the military a career.

“I want to run from here and go to wherever he is at,” his distraught mother, Catalina, told KMEX-TV. “I want to see him even if he is dead, I want to kiss him.”

Marin was assigned to Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas.

He last saw his family during a January leave, two months before he left for the Middle East.

He managed to call home twice in April and had sent a Mother’s Day card that read: “Don’t worry, be happy.”

“He was never unhappy,” said his sister-in-law, Aracely Haro Marin. “He would say, ‘Don’t worry about it, there will be better times.’ ”

Army Sgt. Atanacio Haro Marin was killed in action on 06/03/03.

Marine Sgt. Jonathan W. Lambert

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Sgt. Jonathan W. Lambert, 28, of New Site, Miss.

Sgt. Lambert was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died June 1 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, as a result of injuries he suffered May 26 when his Humvee rolled over in Iraq.

Jonathan Lambert joined the Marine Corps in January 1995 and was assigned to the Headquarters Battalion of the 1st Marine Division since January 2001. He died at Lansdstulh hospital in Germany from injuries he received in a Humvee accident in southern Iraq.

His division was traveling by convoy from Baghdad to Kuwait to prepare to return to their home base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., when the May 26 accident occurred.

A 1993 Booneville High School graduate, Lambert worked in wireless data communications as a member of the 1st Marine Division.

In a message e-mailed to his hometown newspaper, The Banner-Independent of Booneville, Lambert had written: “I am hard and thorough with my Marines to make sure the job is done right. Many other Marines depend on us for their survival in combat. I will not let them down.”

Survivors include his wife, Betty; a 2-year-old daughter, Kinsey; and his parents, Becky and Johnny Lambert of Booneville, Miss.

— Associated Press

Marine Sgt. Jonathan W. Lambert was killed in action on 06/01/03.