Iraq attacks hit Ohio military families hard

updated 4:57 p.m. ET Aug. 4, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rosemary Palmer and her husband were making plans to attend memorial services for six Marine reservists killed earlier this week — five of them from the same battalion as her son, Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder — when two uniformed servicemen came down her street.

It was her family’s turn.

“We knew. They didn’t even get a chance to knock,” Palmer said.

For relatives of those in the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, there has been a sudden spike in such grim visits from uniformed servicemen.

Schroeder, 23, of Cleveland, and eight more Marines from the Ohio-based battalion were killed Wednesday along with a civilian interpreter in the deadliest roadside bombing in Iraq.

The news came two days after the same battalion that the Lima Company is part of — 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines — lost five other members in fighting. And two other members of the suburban Cleveland-based battalion were killed in combat last week.

The Marines originally said all 14 who died Wednesday were part of the same battalion. Thursday, Chief Warrant Officer Orrin Bowman said the other five were part of a different unit and ran the vehicle that all 14 were in.

'A little bit ridiculous'
At Lima Company headquarters Thursday, 20 pink roses and a teddy bear were propped up, and the fence that surrounds it had a yellow ribbon and a balloon with the words “proud and free” written on it.

Pat Wilsox, who manages a doughnut shop by the battalion’s headquarters in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park, threw her hand over her heart when she heard of the latest deaths.

“Oh my God,” she said softly. “I’m all for protection but this is getting a little bit ridiculous.”

Lance Cpl. Timothy Michael Bell Jr., 22, of West Chester, Lance Cpl. Brett Wightman, 22, of Sabina and Lance Cpl. Michael Cifuentes, 25, of Oxford, were among the Lima Company casualties, said relatives and a spokesman for one family. Military officials said they would not release a list of the dead until they finished tracking down relatives.

Among the members of Lima Company is Lance Cpl. John David “J.D.” Coleman, son of Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman. The family had not heard anything on his status as of Wednesday, said Mike Brown, the mayor’s spokesman.

Isolde Zierk, 59, coordinator of Lima Company’s family support group, found an answering machine full of messages from worried families when she got to her Columbus home after work Wednesday evening. A neighbor stopped by to see if she’d heard anything about her own son, Sgt. Guy Zierk, 29, who serves in Lima Company. She hadn’t.

“My stomach’s in knots,” she said, choking back tears.

Mohammed Modiur Rahman, 54, of Columbus, said he last heard from his son, Cpl. Mohammed N. Rahman, about three days earlier. The Marine sounded nervous, his father said.

The father said his son told him he lost his best friend in the unit, Cpl. Andre L. Williams, who was killed last Thursday when Lima Company came under attack near Cykla in western Iraq.

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