Inland Marine killed in Iraq

CASUALTY: The man, who joined the Corps at 17, is killed in Al Anbar province.

10:00 PM PST on Monday, November 27, 2006

By MEGHAN LEWIT and SEAN NEALON

The Press-Enterprise

A fifth graduate of Hemet district schools has been killed in Iraq.



Lance Cpl. Jeromy D. West, 20, of Aguanga, died Saturday while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, according to a Department of Defense news release.

His home in Aguanga had a shrine to him near the driveway and a front yard decorated with American and Marine Corps flags.

Aguanga, a hilly, rural area south of Hemet and east of Temecula on the Riverside-San Diego County border, is part of the Hemet Unified School District. West graduated at 17 from Hamilton High School in Anza.

After graduating, West told his mother, Lisa West, and his stepfather, Ron Klopf, that he wanted to join the Marine Corps. They signed the papers to allow Jeromy to join the Marines before his 18th birthday.

"He wanted to be the one to take care of us. He tried to be the man of the house," Lisa West said. West often told her son that she missed his face, so he would get pictures of himself and would e-mail them to her cell phone.

Jeromy West was stationed in Hawaii and had served a tour in Afghanistan before being sent to Iraq Sept. 11.

West's younger sister, Brandi, 18, was the only one home Saturday when two Marines and a Navy chaplain arrived to say Jeromy had died.

"He was just my hero," Brandi said. "I couldn't have asked for a better brother."

Four Hemet High School graduates have been killed in the fighting in Iraq. Three have died since June, two in October.

Hamilton High Principal Jim Allured said West graduated before he came to the school, but had heard from others that West was "just a really, really good kid" who was active in student government and athletics.

West was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, the release stated.

The first death of a Hemet High graduate came in January 2004, when Army Spc. Jason Chappell, 22, died in a roadside bomb attack. Marine Cpl. Michael Estrella, 20, died last June when his patrol came under enemy fire.

Twenty-year-old Army Pfc. Kenny Francis Stanton Jr.'s death came Oct. 13, and just 10 days later, Navy Corpsman Charles Otto "Otter" Sare, 23, was killed. Both died in roadside bombings.

Twenty-nine Riverside County residents have died during the fighting in Iraq -- 1 percent of U.S. deaths since the war began. Fifty-three Inland residents have died in Iraq since 2003.

Reach Sean Nealon at 951-375-3730 or snealon@PE.com

Staff writer Adam C. Hartmann contributed to this report.

© 2006, The Press-Enterprise Company

At 14, Jeromy West wanted to go fight terrorists

He called his mom Thursday from Iraq

By Rick Rogers

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 28, 2006

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made a lot of Americans angry. They made Jeromy West, a sweet-natured 14-year-old, angry enough to go to war.

The boy, formerly of Chula Vista, joined the Marines at age 17. By 19, he was guarding polling centers in Afghanistan. At 20, he was battling insurgents in Iraq.

On Thursday, an exhausted West called his mother, Lisa West-Klopf, from Anbar province during a lull in combat duty.

“He was tired and his feet were all messed up,” said his mother, 41, who lives in Aguanga, a town of about 6,000 people close to the Riverside-San Diego county line. Her family moved there when West was in the eighth grade.

“He had not had a shower in days and days and was fed pie and orange soda for Thanksgiving. But he was real excited because he had received a Taco Bell nacho kit I had sent him in the mail,” she said. “I don't know how he did it, but he called everyone on Thanksgiving – his brother and girlfriend and us. We are very glad that he was able to call.”

On Saturday, a sniper's bullet struck West while he stood guard on a roof in western Iraq, killing him almost instantly. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

The news rattled students and teachers yesterday at Hamilton High School in Anza, where West graduated in 2004.

“We are a small, tight-knit, very rural community. A football game on a Saturday is the only game in town. When this kind of thing happens, it really hits a small community. Chances are you either knew him or knew of him or knew his family,” said school principal Jim Allured.

Today, the U.S. flag on campus will be lowered to half-staff in honor of West, who played football, baseball and wrestled for the Hamilton Bobcats.

“He was also a member of the student government and was very well liked by fellow students and staff. He was a hard worker, dependable, great sense of humor and a good student. From talking to people who knew him, he was just a neat kid,” Allured said.

The principal described West's senior photo as “happy, but one of a person on a mission.”

That mission started early and always included the military, West-Klopf said.

West wanted to be an “Army man” even before he played football in a Chula Vista Pop Warner league in the mid-1990s, his mother said. The attacks of Sept. 11 simply galvanized a nascent patriotism.

“That made him mad, and he never forgot. He wanted to fight the terrorists over there to keep us safe here. He didn't want anyone else to have to do it,” she said.

Days after graduating from Hamilton High, he left for boot camp in San Diego. He was deployed to the Middle East soon afterward.

During his first tour in Afghanistan, “he guarded the ballot boxes and felt he was a part of history,” West-Klopf said.

Mother and son sat down before West shipped out for his second combat tour – this time in Iraq.

“I told him that if something happened, that I wanted him to go to a national cemetery like his grandfather,” she said. “But he did not want that.”

Now, the plan is to cremate West and keep the ashes. His family is thinking about holding a memorial service at the football stadium where West once starred as a center and linebacker.

“He was the sweetest, funniest kid and so many people loved him. . . . I would tell him that I missed his face and he would take a picture of his face and send it to me. He did that just before he shipped out to Iraq,” his mother said.

“It's the little things like that I'm going to miss the most. Like him kissing me on my cheek,” she said. “I am going to miss him every day for the rest of my life.”

Rick Rogers: (760) 476-8212; rick.rogers@uniontrib.com

© Copyright 2006 Union-Tribune Publishing Co

Marine remembered as caring, committed

By: JOSE CARVAJAL - Staff Writer

AGUANGA -- For much of his life, Jeromy West knew that he would one day join the military. The 9/11 terrorist attacks sealed the deal: Upon graduating from high school, he had decided, he would enlist in the Marines and fight for his country.

West was 17 years old when he graduated from Hamilton High School in 2004 and, after long talks with his parents about enlisting, they agreed to provide their consent. The plan was for him to serve four years and then use the GI Bill to go to college.

After boot camp, he was stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay and then deployed to Afghanistan in May 2005.

On Sept. 11 this year, he was sent to Iraq.

On Saturday, he was killed in combat.

According to the Department of Defense, West, 20, a lance corporal, died Saturday while fighting enemy forces in the western province of Al Anbar. He had been a mortarman assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force.

On Tuesday, his family remembered him as a caring son and brother who loved sports and who was committed to defending his country.

"He's a hero," West's sister, Brandi, 18, said Tuesday in the living room of the family's spacious home overlooking Lake Riverside.

Photographs of West are scattered throughout the house -- some of him in his Hamilton High football uniform, others of him with his siblings and several of him in military uniform.

Also throughout the house are decorations and knickknacks displaying the family's strong sense of patriotism. Along with American flags incorporated into everything from blankets to tablecloths, several World War II-era posters encouraging young men to join the military are hung on the walls.

"It's just one of those things where we're proud to be Americans," said Ron Klopf, West's stepfather.

There was no question that his stepson always shared that pride, he said.

"He had always (known) he wanted to be in the military," he said. "He felt when he got older that's what he should do. He was real adamant that people should do their part."

West loved his friends and family, Klopf said, and it was usually the case that many of them would be gathered at the house when his stepson was home. West also loved cars and playing football, Klopf said, and still harbored dreams of playing in college after he left the military.

A.J. Klopf, West's stepbrother, said the two were close.

West loved to make people laugh, he said.

"He always had a way to turn everything into a joke," said the 20-year-old Klopf, who enlisted in the Navy when West was first deployed to Afghanistan. "That was really nice about him."

Enlisting in the Marines was something West talked about often in high school, he said.

"He was adamant about what he did," Klopf said. "He enjoyed it. As not fun as it is to go over there, it's what he wanted to do."

-- Contact staff writer Jose Carvajal at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or jcarvajal@californian.com.

© 1997-2006 North County Times – Lee Enterprises

November 29, 2006

‘Not a big guy, but tough as hell’

By William Cole

The Honolulu Advertiser

At least three Hawaii Marines have been killed by snipers in Haditha, Iraq, since early October, reflecting an increase in the insurgent tactic in that area of western Anbar province.

Lance Cpl. Jeromy D. West, 20, became the third when he was struck Saturday while standing guard on a roof-top, his family said.



The California man was the fourth Marine with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment to be killed in western Iraq in less than a week.

Three other Marines, Lance Cpl. Joshua C. Alonzo, 21; Pfc. Heath Warner, 19; and Lance Cpl. James R. Davenport, 20, died when a roadside bomb hit their Humvee Nov. 22.

West played football and baseball all four years at Hamilton High School near his hometown of Aguanga, Calif., a rural area and horse country where West was well known, said his stepfather, Ron Klopf.

West played center and middle linebacker on the varsity football team.

“He’s not a big guy, but he’s tough as hell, and that’s where they put him, in the middle,” Klopf said.

That trait carried through into his decision to join the Marine Corps at the age of 17, three months shy of his 18th birthday.

“He felt that would be the hardest (of the military services),” Klopf said. “He didn’t want to take anything easy.”

“We’re doing OK,” Klopf said. “We’re real proud of him. ... When a kid that’s 20 years gets killed, it affects hundreds and hundreds of people, and when you mount it up to almost 3,000 (killed in Iraq), it’s like 300,000 that get affected. It’s one of those things where every single death affects a lot of people.”

Klopf said his stepson “did a great job” in Iraq. “He’s a hero.”

Hawai’i was West’s first duty station. The single Marine had deployed to Afghanistan previously.

“He couldn’t really talk about that on the phone. He was real respectful of the rules,” the stepfather said. “(But) I said I heard it might be calming down over there, and he said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ “ About 1,000 Hawai’i Marines are on a seven-month tour in western Iraq that began in September. Fifteen have been killed.

West and Klopf would go deep-sea fishing every time West visited California. His stepbrother, Andrew Klopf, is based at Pearl Harbor on the submarine USS Columbia.

West decided against college in the short term, telling his stepfather he wasn’t ready for the coursework, and wanted to be in the Marines for four years before going to college and, hopefully, playing football.

“We allowed him to (join the Marines). He wanted to protect his country,” Klopf said.

“We just want to make sure everybody knows what a great kid he was.”

And the terrorists that put this fine man into the maul are still in the reigns of power getting ready to grind the rest of us into bloody mush.

The big lie that is now a morbid and obvious lie. Sept 11 2001 was treason to the nation by liars and killers of the Corporate State.

I wanted to follow up on the memory of a great man, a great Marine, Lance Corporal Jeromy D. West.

I had been in contact with Jeromy while he has been deployed to Iraq for several months, getting updates on his unit periodically.

This young man was not just an American Hero, he was my hero! Although I have never met him in person, his emails of what he was doing in Iraq made me feel I was a part of his Unit and a part of their life.

Many times Jeromy would email me telling me how difficult things were over there and yet how proud he was to be a part of it.

I wanted to say to his friends and family that we should all be VERY proud of Lance Corporal Jeromy D. West - he is our Hero.

His memory should remain as we continue to pray for the others in his Unit.

Thanks Jeromy, thanks 3rd Marine Division, thanks Marines!

Matthew E. Drake

Matthew.Drake@Grote.com