Marine Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper, 27, of Montrose, Ill.

Sgt. Hopper was assigned to the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine Air Control Group 28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Cherry Point, N.C.; died Sept. 8, 2007, from wounds sustained while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq, on June 20, 2005.

The following statement is released at the request of the family of U.S. Marine Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper

U.S. Marine Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper, 27, of Montrose, Illinois, died in Havelock, N.C,. on Saturday, Sept. 8 following wounds sustained in Iraq in June 2005.

Sgt. Hopper was born in Alton on June 24, 1980, attended Midway Elementary School in Moro and graduated from Dietrich High School in Dietrich, Illinois. He also attended Lake Land College in Mattoon.

His mother, Judy Hopper, of Montrose, said Sgt. Hopper enlisted in the Marines in January 2001. ”His younger brother was a Marine and loved it,” she said. “Nick saw his brother succeed and wanted to do it as well.”

Sgt. Hopper’s military honors included a Combat Action Ribbon, Purple Heart, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, National Defense Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, two Good Conduct Medals and a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

He is survived by his wife, Natividad; his son, Andrew; his mother; his father, Van Hopper, of Texas; his brother, Christopher Hopper, of Montrose, and his grandparents.

“Nick was the most compassionate, kind, generous person that I ever knew,” his mother said. “He was a loving father and a devoted husband.”

The News & Observer -- A Cherry Point-based Marine was wounded in Iraq in 2005 and died of those injuries nearly a year ago, but the Pentagon forgot to formally announce his death until Friday.

Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper, 27, of Montrose, Ill., was wounded west of the town of Hit in western Iraq on June 20, 2005, said Maj. Aisha Bakkar, a spokeswoman at Cherry Point for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. An improvised bomb struck his truck in Anbar Province, then the deadliest place for U.S. troops in Iraq.

He died in Havelock more than two years later, on Sept. 8, 2007. An autopsy report issued the next month made it clear his death was caused by the combat wounds, Bakkar said.

After families are notified, the Defense Department normally issues a brief news release on each death in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether combat-related or not. In Hopper's case, the family was properly notified of the cause of death immediately after the autopsy, and his death was properly listed as combat-related in military records, but the formal public notification was somehow overlooked, said Maj. Dave Nevers, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon.

"All the internal procedures for classifying him as an OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) casualty were completed, but it took us a little while to realize we hadn't issued a pubic notification," Nevers said.

Hopper was assigned to the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine Air Control Group-28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, according to the Pentagon news release. That unit uses shoulder-launched Stinger missiles to protect U.S. troops from airborne threats, Bakkar said. Hopper had almost certainly been assigned to other duties in Iraq, though, as insurgents there have no aircraft.

According to a statement on behalf of Hopper's family that was released by the Illinois lieutenant governor's office last fall, Hopper graduated from Dietrich High School in Dietrich, Ill., and attended Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill. He enlisted in January 2001.

Hopper is survived by his wife, Natividad; his son, Andrew; his mother, Judy Hopper of Montrose, Ill.; his father, Van Hopper of Texas; and his brother, Christopher Hopper, of Montrose.

Marine Sgt. Nickolas Lee Hopper died 9/08/07