SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
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Marine's last letter found on computer
'Others have died for my freedom'
Thursday, September 1, 2005
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
In August, Brian and Shellie Starr of Snohomish received a final message from the son they lost on Memorial Day.
In plain view on a desktop computer returned to the United States by 22-year-old Cpl. Jeff Starr's fellow Marines was a letter he had composed for his girlfriend. It was to be read if he did not return.
"Obviously," he wrote, "if you are reading this, then I have died in Iraq."
On his third deployment to Iraq since the war began in March 2003, Starr was well-acquainted with war's horror and uncertainty. Starr rubbed shoulders with death in April 2004, when he and 13 other Marines, trapped behind enemy lines in Fallujah, fought off several hundred insurgents for several hours until reinforcements arrived. Starr planned to leave the Marines in August. He wanted to go to college, to marry his sweetheart.
Instead, Starr came into the sights of an enemy sniper during fighting in Ar Ramadi on Memorial Day. A corpsman who tried to save him wrote Starr's loved ones afterward that the young Marine was shot through his left shoulder. The bullet crossed his chest and struck his heart. Starr never regained consciousness.
Although other families across the nation last month privately sorted and wept through the things carried to war by sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, the Starrs and their son's girlfriend shared publicly what he wanted known.
"Dearest ----
I'm writing this for one reason only. On April 13th 2004, I thought I was going to die. My only regret is that I hadn't spent enough time with you. That I hadn't told you everything I wanted to. Being in Iraq for a 3rd time, I don't want to feel that way again because it was the worst feeling ever.
"So this letter is in case I won't ever get the chance to tell you," he wrote.
Starr believed in what he was doing, but knew he could die.
"I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.
"I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.
"Well I can't type forever, I know you want to read more but I thought simple and to the point would be easier.
"I love you with all my heart.
"Goodbye my Love."
While the Starrs received their son's last words, five other families of servicemen and -women with local ties received the dreaded knock on the door from military casualty officers last month.
Washington state's price of war last month grew to 115 casualties -- 105 in Iraq, 10 in Afghanistan. Nationwide, U.S. fatalities in Iraq neared 1,900 since the war began in March 2003. More than 200 American servicemen and -women have been killed in Afghanistan since the war there began after 9/11.
In Iraq, Pfc. Nils G. Thompson, 19, of Confluence, Pa., a member of Fort Lewis' Stryker Brigade, was killed in Iraq by a sniper Aug. 4, a day after his birthday.
Spc. Jose L. Ruiz, 28, of Brentwood, N.Y., one of Thompson's fellow Stryker Brigade soldiers, was killed Aug. 15 in combat, leaving behind a wife and 9-month-old daughter.
Sgt. Todd Partridge, 35, of Natchez, Miss., a military policeman from Fort Lewis, died Aug. 20 in an explosion from a roadside bomb. He left behind a wife and two girls, ages 11 and 9.
In Afghanistan, Sgt. Robert G. Davis, 23, of Jackson, Mo., with Fort Lewis' 555th "Triple Nickle" Movement and Enhancement Brigade of combat engineers, was killed Aug. 18 near Kandahar when a roadside bomb blew up under his vehicle. He left behind a wife and son.
Killed with him was 1st Lt. Laura Margaret Walker, 24, of Texas, the first Fort Lewis woman to perish in Afghanistan. Walker was a 2003 West Point graduate from a family steeped in Army tradition. Her father, Col. Keith Walker, is chief of staff of the 1st Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas. One of her grandfathers was the commanding general of Fort Lewis. A brother graduated from West Point this year; another is with the military academy's class of 2008.
Walker was buried at West Point last Thursday.
After completing 15 months as a highly regarded platoon leader, Walker recently was named public affairs officer for Task Force Pacemaker, the construction effort in Afghanistan to build a key 75-mile highway. In Web and newspaper articles, Walker described the construction as a peaceful enterprise that Taliban insurgents feared would unite Afghans, especially as that country's elections draw closer in September.
"An interpreter and a female soldier are always included in the security detail, available to assist with communication or searching local national females," she wrote of guarding the highway's construction.
"These measures have resulted in a 100 percent success rate; not a single Pacemaker soldier has been attacked while working on the road."
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P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com.
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