Kaneohe Marine killed by sniper in Iraq is identified
The Pentagon has identified a Kaneohe-based Marine who was killed in Iraq this week as 2nd Lt. Joshua L. Booth.
He is the 16th Kaneohe Marine to die in Iraq this year and the fifth since August.
Booth 23, of Fiskdale, Mass., was killed by a sniper on Tuesday while leading his platoon on a foot patrol in Haditha in Al Anbar province, his family said. Besides his parents, John and Debra Booth, he is survived by his wife, Erica, and an 18-month-old daughter.
Booth worked in an advanced intelligence unit in which every member spoke the native language.
"They said Josh got more out of the neighbors in Haditha in his two weeks there than they have in six months," Jack Booth told the Telegram and Gazette of Worcester.
Reading from notes, Booth quoted a Marine captain, who called the Booths shortly after their son was killed. "The enemy is terrified of Josh," John Booth said the captain told him. "The people of Iraq love him. He was a natural. Everything he touched turned to gold. Nobody follows ferociously as Josh or worked as lovingly with the people."
John Booth said his son wanted to be in the military from a young age. He graduated from the Citadel Military College in Charleston, S.C., in 2005.
He was the fifth Marine assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, from Kaneohe Bay, to die in Iraq since the unit arrived there in August.
The nearly 1,000 Marines from 2nd Battalion replaced its sister unit, the 3rd Battalion.
The 3rd Battalion, which also has about 1,000 Marines, lost 11 members during its seven-month Iraqi deployment.
Since March 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, 104 military personnel and civilians with Hawaii ties have died there. Sixty-two of those killed have been Kaneohe Marines and sailors.