thedrifter
03-16-08, 08:46 AM
Groveport Madison graduate
Marine dies in sleep months after Iraq blast
Sunday, March 16, 2008 3:33 AM
By Jeb Phillips
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
mb or a rocket-propelled grenade exploded underneath Marine Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Scott Bachus' Humvee near the end of his second tour in Iraq.
The explosion gave Bachus a concussion, and he lost much of his hearing. He came home from that tour last March. Looking back, it might have been the beginning of the end, his family said.
Bachus died in his sleep Monday at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at age 38. He was working as an artillery instructor, even with the loss of hearing. He would have gone back to Iraq if he had been asked.
"He was a Marine to the bone," said Jerry Bachus Jr., his older brother, who served in the Army Reserve. "I have never met anyone in the military service who had more of a commitment."
Bachus grew up in Madison Township, graduated from Groveport Madison High School in 1988 and joined the Marines. His father had been a Navy corpsman -- a medic -- attached to a Marine unit during the Vietnam War. During hunting trips, he would ask his father about his time in the military, and his father would say, "The Marines are the cream of the crop."
The cause of his death is speculation at this point, his family said. It could take months for test results to come in. But the explosion might well have caused an undetected injury that led to his death, his brother said.
Still, Bachus was doing what he wanted to be doing. His family is clear on that. He was an adventurer from the beginning. He hunted and fished, and he loved to pitch horseshoes. He played high-school football.
"A sportsman," his brother called him, though he was equally comfortable talking politics.
Bachus lived all over the place with the Marines. He helped guard the U.S. Embassy in Japan. He served in Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War. He spent six months in Afghanistan, working with NATO trying to stop drug production. He taught mountain warfare in California. During his last tour in Iraq, he patrolled neighborhoods in Ramadi.
He was home on leave from mountain-warfare school several years ago when his brother managed to get him out on a double date: Jerry and his wife and Gunnery Sgt. Bachus with a woman who Jerry threatened could beat his brother at pool. Angela Lilley did, in fact, beat him at pool, and they spent the rest of his leave together. He invited her back west. They married in 2004.
Yesterday, she was to escort her husband's remains back from Camp Lejeune so he can be buried at home.
Calling hours for Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Bachus are noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. today at Evans Funeral Home, 4171 E. Livingston Ave. in Columbus. A funeral service is scheduled for noon Monday at the funeral home, with interment to follow at Union Grove Cemetery, 400 Winchester Cemetery Rd. in Canal Winchester.
Ellie
Marine dies in sleep months after Iraq blast
Sunday, March 16, 2008 3:33 AM
By Jeb Phillips
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
mb or a rocket-propelled grenade exploded underneath Marine Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Scott Bachus' Humvee near the end of his second tour in Iraq.
The explosion gave Bachus a concussion, and he lost much of his hearing. He came home from that tour last March. Looking back, it might have been the beginning of the end, his family said.
Bachus died in his sleep Monday at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at age 38. He was working as an artillery instructor, even with the loss of hearing. He would have gone back to Iraq if he had been asked.
"He was a Marine to the bone," said Jerry Bachus Jr., his older brother, who served in the Army Reserve. "I have never met anyone in the military service who had more of a commitment."
Bachus grew up in Madison Township, graduated from Groveport Madison High School in 1988 and joined the Marines. His father had been a Navy corpsman -- a medic -- attached to a Marine unit during the Vietnam War. During hunting trips, he would ask his father about his time in the military, and his father would say, "The Marines are the cream of the crop."
The cause of his death is speculation at this point, his family said. It could take months for test results to come in. But the explosion might well have caused an undetected injury that led to his death, his brother said.
Still, Bachus was doing what he wanted to be doing. His family is clear on that. He was an adventurer from the beginning. He hunted and fished, and he loved to pitch horseshoes. He played high-school football.
"A sportsman," his brother called him, though he was equally comfortable talking politics.
Bachus lived all over the place with the Marines. He helped guard the U.S. Embassy in Japan. He served in Kuwait after the Persian Gulf War. He spent six months in Afghanistan, working with NATO trying to stop drug production. He taught mountain warfare in California. During his last tour in Iraq, he patrolled neighborhoods in Ramadi.
He was home on leave from mountain-warfare school several years ago when his brother managed to get him out on a double date: Jerry and his wife and Gunnery Sgt. Bachus with a woman who Jerry threatened could beat his brother at pool. Angela Lilley did, in fact, beat him at pool, and they spent the rest of his leave together. He invited her back west. They married in 2004.
Yesterday, she was to escort her husband's remains back from Camp Lejeune so he can be buried at home.
Calling hours for Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Bachus are noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. today at Evans Funeral Home, 4171 E. Livingston Ave. in Columbus. A funeral service is scheduled for noon Monday at the funeral home, with interment to follow at Union Grove Cemetery, 400 Winchester Cemetery Rd. in Canal Winchester.
Ellie