Tucson sailor had earned the respect of 'his' Marines
Published: 08.23.2006
Tucson sailor had earned the respect of 'his' Marines
Chadwick Kenyon was 3rd Mountain View H.S. graduate killed in war
BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen
Navy Hospitalman Chadwick Kenyon posted his thoughts online about his tour in Iraq as a combat medic with the Marines.
"Comin home soon. words can't describe how good it's gonna be. this deployment sucked. never look forward to coming home because that's when (it) goes down hill. lost 4 of my marines/friends in a truck bomb, God rest their souls. and then not even a week later an (bomb) hit my vehicle again and this time my block got knocked off and i was out cold..."
On Sunday, the 2004 Mountain View High School graduate was killed when an improvised explosive device blew up the truck he rode in. Kenyon was 20. He had been in Iraq since March.
On Tuesday, his mother, Charmain Wright, recalled one incident typical of Chad.
A pipe burst and flooded his bedroom while he was stationed in southern California. She told him what happened and he hung up. Ten minutes later he was back on the phone.
"Good news, mama," he said. "I'm coming home."
He'd gone to his commanding officer and gotten permission to drive to Tucson and help his mom.
"He was very protective of me," she said.
A Navy chaplain showed up at her door Sunday to bring her the news that her only child was dead - the 11th Tucsonan to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan and the third Mountain View graduate to die serving his country. Army Pfc. Sam Huff was killed in April 2005 in Iraq. Army Sgt. Kenneth Ross died in September in Afghanistan.
Wright described her son as a shy and nice kid who blossomed in high school.
That's when he decided to become a medic in the military, and he joined the Navy during his senior year in a delayed-entry program that allowed him to finish school before starting boot camp.
"He was perfect for the Navy," Wright said. "He was very disciplined and sharp."
Kenyon shipped out in March. And even though he was a sailor in the Navy, he was attached to the Third Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the First Marine Division.
He served as a corpsman to the troops who were performing combat sweeps against insurgents.
"He wanted to take care of his Marines," Wright said.
What he was really proud of was how others in his unit took him as one of their own, even though Kenyon was a sailor and not a Marine, his mother said.
"He was very proud to have earned their respect," Wright said. "He was a Marine to them."
The Internet spread word of Kenyon's death and proved a cyber-grief circle for those who knew him.
His MySpace.com page chronicles the typical back-and- forth and inside jokes that ended abruptly Monday.
"As unreal as unreal can be," one of his friends described it. "We have been best friends since elementary school. We had ups and downs and so many unbelievable adventures. No one has ever had my back the way you did."
Ellie
