Marine Battalion in Ohio Hit Hard

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

BROOK PARK, Ohio — Fourteen Marines were killed in Iraq on Wednesday by a roadside bomb, members of the same Ohio-based battalion that lost six Marines two days earlier, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

The Marines were members of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in this Cleveland suburb, according to Gunnery Sgt. Brad R. Lauer, public affairs chief with the unit.

The local unit to which the 14 Marines were assigned wasn't disclosed. The battalion has units in Brook Park, which lost six Marines on Monday, and in Columbus and Akron in Ohio, Moundsville, W.Va., and Buffalo, N.Y.

The Marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed early Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, the military said. Another Marine was wounded in the attack, which happened outside Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The first six, members of the battalion's Headquarters and Service Company, died northwest of Baghdad while on sniper duty on Monday.

The battalion was activated in January and went to Iraq in March. Before this week's deaths, the unit's Web site listed 25 of its Marines who have been killed this year.

Unit members in Iraq were under a military-imposed communications blackout to make sure none of the names were disclosed until victims' families were notified. Family members identified four of Monday's dead as Lance Cpls. Jeff Boskovitch of North Royalton, Brian Montgomery of Willoughby and Daniel Nathan Deyarmin of Tallmadge and Sgt. Nathaniel Rock of Toronto.

Boskovitch, 25, was an aspiring police officer who planned to set a wedding date with his girlfriend when he returned home from Iraq this fall.

"We got a lot of e-mail from him," said Paul Boskovitch, who said his nephew joined the Marine reserves in 2000. "He felt he was making a difference there and that the Iraqi people were appreciative of what they were doing. He loved the Marines and he loved his unit."

Rock, 26, spent six years in the Marines after graduating from high school in 1997 and then joined the reserves, said his mother, Adriana Rock. He worked part time as a police officer in Martins Ferry.

Montgomery, 26, joined the Marine reserves in June 2002, and served with his 21-year-old brother, Eric, who will come home for the funeral, said their father, Paul Montgomery.

"The only thing that I keep thinking about was when they deployed in January, (Brian) gave me a big hug and a great big smile and said 'Don't worry Dad, I'll be coming back home."'

Dayarmin and four fellow Marines from the Akron area spoke to Tallmadge middle school students before heading to Iraq, according to Tallmadge Superintendent Vince Frammartino.

Deyarmin, turned 22 two days before he was killed, graduated in 2002 from Tallmadge High School, where he played football, his sister Erica, 23, said. He hoped to open a rental property business when he returned from Iraq.

"He believed in his country," Erica Deyarmin said. "He loved being a Marine."

Brook Park Mayor Mark Elliott said the community, home to a Ford Motor Co. plant and crisscrossing highways, has close relationships with the Marines' reserve center and a National Guard armory that also has sent soldiers to Iraq and suffered casualties.

"It's difficult and our thoughts and prayers go out to their families," said Elliott, who displayed in his office a photograph of the city flag flown over the Iraq headquarters of the Brook Park battalion.