thedrifter
05-02-06, 07:50 AM
Military Was Early Calling for Marine
By Arianne Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; B03
Staff Sgt. Jason C. Ramseyer wanted all his life to be a Marine. He wanted it so badly that he couldn't wait for his 18th birthday, choosing instead to ask his mother to sign his enlistment papers.
And after he made it through boot camp, he would come back to his high school in Lenoir, N.C., from time to time, proudly wearing his Marine uniform and sharing stories of life in the military.
Yesterday, after a decade in the corps that took him to wartime assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. He was 28.
Ramseyer was killed April 20 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Iraq's Anbar province, according to the Defense Department. He was the 228th person killed in the Iraq war to be buried at Arlington.
About 30 friends and relatives gathered yesterday to honor him. Three wreaths, fastened with red, white and yellow flowers, sat near a box holding Ramseyer's ashes. Uniformed Marines folded a U.S. flag and handed it to his wife, Amanda. Ramseyer is also survived by two daughters, Rylee and Kadence.
After Navy Chaplain Lt. Ron Nordan delivered a sermon, Marines fired three volleys and a bugler played taps.
Ramseyer was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. A corporal in his battalion, Eric R. Lueken, 23, of Dubois, Ind., died two days after Ramseyer in the same area.
Ramseyer was born in Florida and moved with his family to North Carolina in 1990.
"He stood out because he had great manners, a lot of respect and a lot of pride. Few have that," recalled Sharon Watts, an administrator at West Caldwell High School in Lenoir, a town of about 20,000 at the northwest foothills of North Carolina.
Ramseyer is the first person from Lenoir to die in Iraq, said Edward Terry, editor of the town's newspaper, the News-Topic. Flags in Lenoir have flown at half-staff since last week, when the Pentagon announced his death, Terry said. On Saturday, about 400 mourners gathered in the town to remember a local hero.
Ramseyer, who played soccer and baseball at West Caldwell High, wanted to join the Marines from an early age, his mother, Cynthia Hicks, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week. Once he enlisted, he never questioned the demands of his profession.
"He was proud to go, proud to serve his country," Hicks said.
In online postings, friends and relatives recalled a similar sense of purpose in Ramseyer.
"Unfortunately [I had] only known Ram for about 7 months, but the first time I saw him I thought to myself, now there is a 'Marine's Marine,' " wrote Staff Sgt. Newt Sanson of Kailua, Hawaii.
"He is certainly going to be missed by the Marine Corps and the Marines that knew him. He had something that just made Marines want to follow him."
Ellie
By Arianne Aryanpur
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; B03
Staff Sgt. Jason C. Ramseyer wanted all his life to be a Marine. He wanted it so badly that he couldn't wait for his 18th birthday, choosing instead to ask his mother to sign his enlistment papers.
And after he made it through boot camp, he would come back to his high school in Lenoir, N.C., from time to time, proudly wearing his Marine uniform and sharing stories of life in the military.
Yesterday, after a decade in the corps that took him to wartime assignments in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. He was 28.
Ramseyer was killed April 20 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Iraq's Anbar province, according to the Defense Department. He was the 228th person killed in the Iraq war to be buried at Arlington.
About 30 friends and relatives gathered yesterday to honor him. Three wreaths, fastened with red, white and yellow flowers, sat near a box holding Ramseyer's ashes. Uniformed Marines folded a U.S. flag and handed it to his wife, Amanda. Ramseyer is also survived by two daughters, Rylee and Kadence.
After Navy Chaplain Lt. Ron Nordan delivered a sermon, Marines fired three volleys and a bugler played taps.
Ramseyer was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. A corporal in his battalion, Eric R. Lueken, 23, of Dubois, Ind., died two days after Ramseyer in the same area.
Ramseyer was born in Florida and moved with his family to North Carolina in 1990.
"He stood out because he had great manners, a lot of respect and a lot of pride. Few have that," recalled Sharon Watts, an administrator at West Caldwell High School in Lenoir, a town of about 20,000 at the northwest foothills of North Carolina.
Ramseyer is the first person from Lenoir to die in Iraq, said Edward Terry, editor of the town's newspaper, the News-Topic. Flags in Lenoir have flown at half-staff since last week, when the Pentagon announced his death, Terry said. On Saturday, about 400 mourners gathered in the town to remember a local hero.
Ramseyer, who played soccer and baseball at West Caldwell High, wanted to join the Marines from an early age, his mother, Cynthia Hicks, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week. Once he enlisted, he never questioned the demands of his profession.
"He was proud to go, proud to serve his country," Hicks said.
In online postings, friends and relatives recalled a similar sense of purpose in Ramseyer.
"Unfortunately [I had] only known Ram for about 7 months, but the first time I saw him I thought to myself, now there is a 'Marine's Marine,' " wrote Staff Sgt. Newt Sanson of Kailua, Hawaii.
"He is certainly going to be missed by the Marine Corps and the Marines that knew him. He had something that just made Marines want to follow him."
Ellie