Marine Sgt. Bradley S. Korthaus

Died March 24, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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28, of Davenport, Iowa; assigned to Engineering Company C, 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, based in Peoria, Ill.; drowned in the Saddam Canal in southern Iraq.

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Korthaus was fording the canal with another group of Marines at 10:30 p.m. local time March 24 to set up a fire support position for a water purification unit on the other side of the waterway. It is unclear how he fell into the water.

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Korthaus, a member of the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Peoria, Ill., “wanted to be a Marine since he was 10 years old,” said his father, a Marine who served in Vietnam. The 29-year-old called home a week before he left for Kuwait in February and was eager to help rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein.

“He was ready. He was over-ready in fact,” Steve Korthaus said. “He would have been mad if he didn’t get to go.”

Korthaus joined the Marines after he graduated from high school in 1992 and served for four years, his father said. He later thought about becoming a plumber but missed the military and joined the Reserves.

Korthaus was engaged and was planning to get married upon his return.