Marine Lance Cpl. Lucas C. Scott

Remember Our Heroes

Marine Lance Cpl. Lucas C. Scott, 20, of Peebles, Ohio

LCpl Scott was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died Dec. 3, 2010 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations.

Lance Cpl. Lucas Christopher Scott, 20, was killed on Friday by small arms fire in or around Marjah, his family said.

Scott was a graduate of Peebles High School. His 20th birthday was this past Tuesday. And his cousin Rebekah Warner said that since he was a young boy, he wanted to be a Marine.

"The most important thing to him was always the Marines," said Warner. With his death she lost her childhood playmate, she said. "He always played the big tough Marine, which he was, but when I looked at him I always saw a little boy with blue eyes," continued Warner.

"His citizenship was exemplary. He was a fine student and a fine young man," said Dave Angles, Peebles High School’s assistant principal. Angles would occasionally share the high school weight room with Scott. "I remember that he worked out often. I was back there and saw him a lot. I think he was doing that for a couple of reasons so that he would excel at sports and to prepare himself for the service.”

"I tried to get him not to join the Marines, I said 'Luke, you're going to get killed.' He said 'It's better than me standing on the corner smoking dope like the rest of these dopes.'" grandfather Melvin Tipton said.

But Tipton said that the Marines were on Scott's mind from a young age. "He's wanted it his whole life. When he was 5 years old, he fixed his bicycle up, fixed like a Marine," he said. Scott painted the bike green and rode it in a parade while wearing military fatigues, Tipton said.

Scott's mother spoke with News 5 on Sunday and said his body has been flown to Dover Air Force Base.

On Scott's mother's Facebook page, she said her son turned 20 on Tuesday. "Luke was a good boy, the best son a mother could have. Nothing ever bothered him, he never got in a hurry. His eyes were beautiful blue like the sky, his smile was loving and warm, his touch tender. He was my best friend. He left a boy and is coming home a MAN!" she wrote.

Friends in Peebles said Scott was well known and much-loved. "He didn't have a mean bone in his body. He had a heart of gold," uncle Greg Tipton said.

Scott was due to come home on leave Jan. 17. His family made the decision they wouldn't celebrate Christmas until he came home.

"His wanting to be a Marine scared us to death. He would just say guys this is what I want to do. If you love me you're going to have to support me," remembered Warner.

She said that a few days before Scott was killed, shrapnel struck him. She explained that he was told to take a few days to recover but he insisted on being out with his unit. "At first I felt so bad that he died without any family there but I know that isn't true. His fellow Marines were his family.”

At Peebles’ home basketball game Friday night, the entire gym observed a moment of silence in his honor. In the crowd was Scott's younger brother Eli, who is a senior this year. Eli is headed into the Marine Corps when he graduates this spring.

Marine Lance Cpl. Lucas C. Scott was killed in action on 12/03/10.