Marine Gunnery Sgt. David S. Spicer

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Gunnery Sgt. David S. Spicer, 33, of Zanesfield, Ohio

Gunnery Sgt Spicer was assigned to 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died July 13, 2009 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

2 staff NCOs among latest Marine casualties
Staff report

Four Marines killed in Afghanistan’s Helmand province since Saturday have been identified by the Pentagon.

They are:

• Staff Sgt. David S. Spicer, 33, of Zanesfield, Ohio.

• Sgt. Michael W. Heede Jr., 22, of Delta, Pa.

• Master Sgt. Jerome D. Hatfield, 36, of Axton, Va.

• Lance Cpl. Pedro A. Barbozaflores, 27, of Glendale, Calif.

Spicer, an explosive ordnance disposal technician with 8th Engineer Support Battalion at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Heede, a combat engineer with 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Camp Pendleton, Calif., died Monday, officials said. The circumstances were not immediately known.

Hatfield, operations chief for Delta Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and Barbozaflores, a light armored vehicle crewman with 2nd LAR, died in a bomb blast Saturday, according to reports. Both were based at Lejeune.

Spicer joined the Corps in October 1994 and had been selected for promotion to gunnery sergeant, officials said. He is survived by a wife and a daughter. Heede enlisted in September 2005.

Hatfield, a former drill instructor, joined the Corps in June 1991, officials said. He is survived by his wife and three children. Barbozaflores joined the Corps in March 2008.

All four were part of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which earlier this month launched a major offensive to expel Taliban fighters from the Helmand River valley

Columbus Dispatch -- A 33-year-old Marine from Zanesfield in Logan County was killed Monday in combat in Afghanistan, military officials confirmed today.

Staff Sgt. David S. Spicer died in the Helmand province, the Department of Defense said. "He was as good a guy as you could ever meet," said Tim Stacy of Zanesfield, one of Spicer's brothers. "He was in the military for 15 years. He loved the military. It was his life."

Spicer joined the Marines after graduating from Benjamin Logan High School in Zanesfield in 1994. Zanesfield is southeast of Bellfontaine, about 53 miles from Columbus.

Spicer's wife, Kate, gave birth to their first child, a daughter, one year ago and is pregnant with a son, Stacy said.

His mother, Sandra Lockwood, and father, David Spicer, were in Delaware today when the body arrived at Dover Air Force Base, he said. Besides Stacy, Spicer is survived by two other brothers and one sister.

He was assigned to the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Stacy said his brother was an ordnance technician who had been in Afghanistan for three months and previously was in Iraq.

Spicer was one of two Marines killed Monday in the province. Officials said Michael W. Heede Jr. of Delta, Pa., also was killed. Heede was assigned to Camp Pendleton.

Stacy said the military hasn't revealed the circumstances surrounding his brother's death.

The family was told that Spicer was in line to be promoted to gunnery sergeant and will receive that honor posthumously. He will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, Stacy said.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. David S. Spicer was killed in action on 7/13/09.