Died October 30, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

25, of North Adams, Mich.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died Oct. 30 of wounds sustained Oct. 29 from an improvised explosive device during combat operations near Nasser Wa Salaam, Iraq.

Hodshire dreamed of being a Marine

Associated Press

NORTH ADAMS, Mich. — A U.S. Marine from Hillsdale County who was serving in Iraq died Sunday near Fallujah, a family spokesman said.

Funeral arrangements for Sgt. Michael Paul Hodshire, 25, of North Adams were incomplete Sunday night, Kenneth Kurtz of Kurtz Funeral Home in Hillsdale said in a statement. He said the military told the family that Hodshire was killed by indirect gunfire. The family was not available for comment, Kurtz said.

The Pentagon had not confirmed the death as of Sunday night.

Hodshire long dreamed of joining the Marine Corps, and he entered basic training four days after graduating from North Adams-Jerome High School in 1999.

“That’s been a passion of his from his school days. He wanted to be a Marine,” Kurtz said.

Hodshire was deployed in Iraq from October 2003 through June 2004, then redeployed in July 2005.

“We’re a small, rural community here,” Kurtz said. “You can say this about so many kids, but he had a lot of friends here. He was very popular.”

High school Principal Carl Christenson said Sunday that the 550-student district would be devastated by the news. He said he met Hodshire last summer during a Little League baseball game. His 11-year-old son and Hodshire’s younger brother play on the same team, he said.

“It’s a small district,” Christenson told the Detroit Free Press. “Obviously, it will have an impact.”

Hodshire is survived by two children, his parents, one brother, three sisters and grandparents.

Two Michigan service members die in Iraq

The Associated Press

NORTH ADAMS, Mich. — Two sergeants, a Marine from Hillsdale County and a soldier from Detroit, have been killed in Iraq.

Marine Sgt. Michael Paul Hodshire of North Adams died Oct. 30 near Fallujah, a family spokesman said.

Funeral arrangements for Hodshire, 25, were incomplete Sunday night, Kenneth Kurtz of Kurtz Funeral Home in Hillsdale said in a statement. He said the military told the family that Hodshire was killed by indirect gunfire. The family was not available for comment, Kurtz said.

The Pentagon had not confirmed the death as of Oct. 31.

Hodshire long dreamed of joining the Marine Corps, and he entered basic training four days after graduating from North Adams-Jerome High School in 1999.

“That’s been a passion of his from his school days. He wanted to be a Marine,” Kurtz said.

Hodshire was deployed in Iraq from October 2003 through June 2004, then redeployed in July 2005. He served as second squad leader for 3rd Platoon, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Kurtz said family members recalled Hodshire saying, “We are there for all the right reasons,” before leaving for his second deployment.

“We’re a small, rural community here,” Kurtz said. “You can say this about so many kids, but he had a lot of friends here. He was very popular.”

High school principal Carl Christenson said Oct. 30 that the 550-student district would be devastated by the news. He said he met Hodshire last summer during a Little League baseball game. His 11-year-old son and Hodshire’s younger brother play on the same team, he said.

“It’s a small district,” Christenson told the Detroit Free Press. “Obviously, it will have an impact.”

Hodshire also had served on the Silent Drill Team and Color Guard in Washington, D.C.

He is survived by two children, his parents, one brother, three sisters and grandparents.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department announced Oct. 30 that Army Staff Sgt. Lewis J. Gentry, 48, of Detroit died Oct. 26 in Mosul, Iraq, from a non-combat-related cause. Additional details were not immediately available.

Gentry was assigned to the Army’s 94th Engineer Battalion in Vilseck, Germany, and worked in transportation.

Vianne Gentry, 64, of Detroit said she remembers the date — Nov. 26, 1986 — on which her younger brother enlisted in the Army.

“He was my baby brother, that’s why I remember the date,” she said. “He was a really good guy.”

Vianne Gentry’s son VonEric had already enlisted in the military and urged his uncle to do so, too.

“He really wasn’t doing that much at the time,” said VonEric Gentry, 45, of Detroit. “I wanted him to go into the military. I told him it would give him a good start. Get a career and training.”

Gentry and Hodshire were the 65th and 66th members of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to die in Iraq.

Died October 30, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

27, of Ellabell, Ga.; assigned to the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Force Service Support Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Oct. 30 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations near Amiriyah, Iraq.

Died November 1, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

27, of Honolulu; assigned to 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; attached to 2nd Force Service Support Group, II MEF (Forward); killed Nov. 1 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations near Ramadi, Iraq.

Honolulu Marine killed in Iraq

By Alexandre Da Silva

The Associated Press

HONOLULU — A Marine who left the University of Hawaii-Hilo in the late 1990s to pursue a military career was killed in Iraq on Nov. 1.

Sgt. Daniel A. Tsue, 27, who joined the Marine Corps in 1998, died after a homemade bomb exploded during combat operations near Ar Ramadi, the Pentagon said.

“He was a good kid,” said his uncle, Wayne Tsue. “He was doing something that he loved.”

“When he left to the Marines, he never came back,” Tsue said.

Daniel Tsue was described by his uncle as “a very kind, very considerate” person who grew up on Moanalua and graduated from Kahuku High School.

Tsue, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, briefly attended UH-Hilo before joining the military, his uncle said.

Tsue was based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., with the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

His unit was attached in Iraq to the 2nd Force Service Support Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

“He put his whole heart into it,” Wayne Tsue said. “He was looked upon as being a very good leader.”

Daniel Tsue was the 44th Marine with island ties to be killed in Iraq.

As of Nov. 3, at least 2,037 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Died November 1, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

28, of Oxnard, Calif.; assigned to 2nd Force Service Support Group (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward); killed Nov. 1 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Ramadi, Iraq.

Died November 2, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

32, of Fairfax, Va.; assigned to the Marine Light-Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; attached to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II MEF (Forward); killed Nov. 2 when his AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter crashed while flying in support of security and stabilization operations near Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Maj. Gerald M. Bloomfield II.

Died November 2, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

38, of Ypsilanti, Mich.; assigned to the Marine Light-Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; attached to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II MEF (Forward); killed Nov. 2 when his AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter crashed while flying in support of security and stabilization operations near Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Capt. Michael D. Martino.

Michigan Marine killed in helicopter crash in Iraq

Associated Press

YPSILANTI, Mich. — A 38-year-old Marine pilot from Michigan and his co-pilot from Virginia were killed when their helicopter crashed near Ramadi, Iraq, the Pentagon and family members say.

Maj. Gerald M. Bloomfield II of Ypsilanti and Capt. Michael Martino, 32, of Fairfax, Va., were aboard an AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter that crashed Wednesday, the Defense Department said in a news release.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Thursday that it shot down a U.S. attack helicopter near Ramadi.

The helicopter crashed during daylong fighting Wednesday in the insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. Besides the two crewmen, an American lieutenant died when a bomb exploded as he was rushing to the crash site.

The authenticity of the statement could not be determined. It appeared on an Islamic Web site and bore the nickname of the group’s spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi.

The U.S. military said the cause of the crash was undetermined but said witnesses reported seeing what they thought was firing at the helicopter before it broke into pieces and crashed.

Bloomfield and Martino were with the Marine Light-Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Bloomfield joined the ROTC while a student at Eastern Michigan University because military service gave him the opportunity to live out his love for education and the armed forces, his father, Gerald Bloomfield, told the Detroit Free Press.

The Michigan Marine volunteered for a third tour in Iraq because “it was worth fighting for,” his father quoted him as saying.

“He strongly believed in what he was doing,” stepmother Judy Bloomfield told The Detroit News. “He wasn’t afraid. He wanted to fight for his country.”

The father said he last spoke to his son a week ago when the Marine called him at work.

“He said, ‘I fly high and try not to get hit,”’ the father said. “I told him I loved him and to stay safe.”

Bloomfield was born in Detroit, graduated from Fowlerville High School in 1984 and from Eastern Michigan in 1988. He also earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering, his family said.

Bloomfield also is survived by wife Julie and 13-year-old son Ryan.

Bloomfield is at least the 67th member of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to die in Iraq.

Died November 4, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

38, of Fayetteville, N.C.; assigned to 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; died Nov. 4 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, from wounds sustained Nov. 2 from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Habbaniyah, Iraq.

Died November 6, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

26, of Boca Raton, Fla.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Nov. 6 by enemy small-arms fire while conducting combat operations during Operation Steel Curtain in Husaybah, Iraq.

Died November 8, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

19, of Denver, Colo., assigned to the 1st Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; died Nov. 8 from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations just west of Rutbah, Iraq.

Died November 12, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

20, of Cleveland; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.; attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward); killed Nov. 12 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Amiriyah, Iraq. Also killed was Lance Cpl. Scott A. Zubowski.

Cleveland Marine killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

CLEVELAND — Two Marines, including one from Cleveland, were killed in Iraq by a homemade bomb, the Pentagon said Nov. 15.

Lance Cpls. David A. Mendez Ruiz, 20, of Cleveland, and Scott A. Zubowski, 20, of Manchester, Ind., died Nov. 12. They were wounded while conducting combat operations in Al Amiriyah, Iraq, the Pentagon said.

They were assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Twentynine Palms, Calif. The unit was attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).

The military said earlier that two 2nd Marine Division Marines died Nov. 12 of injuries suffered when their vehicle was bombed in Al-Amiriyah on the western edge of Baghdad.

Ruiz was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. with his family when he was 6, WKYC-TV said. A former classmate, Rob Joffre, told the station that Ruiz was cheerful and enjoyed spending time with his school buddies.