In accident, Charlie Company suffers its first fatality

SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF BAGHDAD -- Finally, after eight days in Nasiriyah, the call came to move north.

"Goodbye, VietNas -- one town conquered by Charlie Company, many more to come," said Pfc. Christopher Daniels, 20, of Pikeville, Ky., as the Marines headed out at dawn Wednesday.

But any relief the Marines felt leaving Nasiriyah in their dust was ripped from them just outside town when tragedy struck, handing Charlie Company its first casualty of the war.

As the convoy rumbled up a highway, a Marine was electrocuted when he grabbed a low-hanging power line to lift it out of the way of his vehicle. Most of the electrical power in Nasiriyah had been out, and the Marine likely assumed that the line was dead.

The name of the Marine, who like the rest of Task Force Tarawa is from Camp Lejeune, N.C., is being withheld pending notification of kin.

There is no good way to die, but many soldiers will tell you that if they go, they want it to be in battle -- not in an accident. Charlie Company had come under fire most every day since arriving in Nasiriyah on March 25, and was involved in a ferocious friendly fire incident last week.

"These guys have defied death on a number of occasions already," said Capt. Greg Grunwald. "Just when you think you have a time when nothing can happen, Murphy's Law rears its ugly head."

The dead Marine was a well-liked member of the company, and while his death had a profound effect on many, the unit did its best to move on -- mentally and physically.

There was no funeral for the victim, no wake or spoken memorial. His body and gear were driven back to regimental headquarters, and the company marched on.

If the first death in their company had these Marines thinking about their own mortality, about the dark irony of dying in a war because of an accident, they were not talking about it.

About an hour after the incident, the company held a brief roadside ceremony in which six Marines -- Sgt. James Curtis, Cpl. Joseph Ritchie, Lance Cpl. Michael Singles, and privates first class Travis Durrer, Christopher Toms and Caleb Green -- were promoted.

The timing of the promotions was awkward, but unavoidable, as Wednesday was the day when promotions came through.

After the ceremony, the company rolled onward, through barren land that made Kuwait look lush. The unit moved past the biblical town of Ur, past camel herds and dust devils -- miniature tornadoes of sand.

The landscape was bleak, and perhaps seemed even more bleak because of the morning's events.

On the company moved, through scrubland and later irrigated fields. Around 5 p.m., the Marines pulled in for the night, somewhere about halfway between Nasiriyah and Baghdad -- maybe 100 miles from the capital.

As night fell, there was one less Marine in Charlie Company. But no one was talking about it.

Lance Corporal Brian E. Anderson was killed April 2 in a non-hostile accident west of An Nasiriyah, Iraq.

Anderson was manning a .50 caliber rifle on top of a 7-ton truck when the vehicle passed under and apparently snagged low hanging power lines.

Anderson was serving with Task Force Tarawa, which is comprised of marines from Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton. He was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.

A reporter for The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., who is traveling with Anderson's Charlie Company unit said colleagues remembered that he was among the first to throw water to Iraqi children when the company crossed the border not quite two weeks ago.

"I remember the first day he came to us, he was so excited to go," said 1st Sgt. Michael Sprague, 36, of White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. "He was so much fun to be around, that kid."

Anderson also was known for his love of playing dominoes.

An administrative clerk, Anderson had been assigned to the unit just before its mid-January deployment. During the company's eight days in Nasiriyah, Anderson often marveled that he, a clerk, was on the front lines of a war.

Charlie Company was involved in several firefights in Nasiriyah, but its last days in the southern Iraqi town were quiet. The night before he died, Anderson reportedly said he was becoming homesick.

As the convoy rumbled out of town Wednesday following Anderson's call to "Roll out!" he took his position atop a truck. Not far out of Nasiriyah, he grabbed a low-hanging power line to push it over the gun and his head.

The wire was live, and Anderson was electrocuted. He lost consciousness immediately and died en route to a medical facility.

The incident is under investigation.

Anderson is the second North Carolina resident to die in the fighting.

Army Sgt. Roderic Solomon of Fayetteville died Friday when his Bradley fighting vehicle rolled off a cliff in Iraq. He was based at Fort Stewart, Ga.

At least 13 Marines at Lejeune have died in the war against Iraq.

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