Army Spc. Chase R. Whitham

Died May 8, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Oregon; a scout in the Stryker Bridgade. 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.; killed May 8 when an electrical current charged the water in a swimming pool in Mosul, Iraq.

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Oregonian killed in Iraq

By Sarah Linn

Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. — A soldier from Oregon, Spc. Chase Whitham, 21, died Saturday in Mosul, Iraq, when an electrical current charged the water in a pool he was swimming in, the Department of Defense said.

Whitham was assigned to the 296th Forward Support Battalion, Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based out of Fort Lewis, Wash.

Whitham is the 18th Oregon soldier killed in the Iraq war, including four who were members of the Stryker Brigade. The brigade, part of the 2nd Infantry Division, is named for its signature medium-weight combat vehicles.

The deaths bring to 765 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Whitham attended Harrisburg High School for two years, then transferred to Marist High School in Eugene, where he played varsity basketball and golf.

Corey Anderson, head basketball coach and athletic director at Marist, described Whitham as a friendly, mischievous young man who stood out as the only junior on an all-senior team.

“He’d go up and down the hallways making this dinosaur noise,” Anderson said. “You knew Chase was nearby because you heard Tyrannosaurus Rex blaring.”

Once, when the boys’ basketball team beat rival Junction City in a district playoff game, Whitman grabbed an enemy chair and paraded it across the court, Anderson said. That became a running joke, the coach said.

“Chase had an incredible spirit,” said Cheryl Brelsford, Marist principal at the time. “He was just one of those kids who as a principal you knew was always up to something.”

Whitham graduated from the private Catholic high school in 2000, followed by his younger brother, Kyle, last year.

Marist students planned to honor the soldier and his family Monday during a daily Mass, said Rick Martin, the school’s director of campus ministry.

Whitham’s parents, Laurie and Mark Whitham, used to live on a berry farm five miles south of Harrisburg but have since moved to Salem.

“It’s just been extremely difficult and we have a lot of people supporting us,” Laurie Whitham said.