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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Marine 2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers
Died March 21, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
30, of Harrison County, Miss.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed in action in Sothern Iraq.
Childers honored by The Citadel
Associated Press
POWELL, Wyo. — A fallen Marine with ties to Wyoming was honored by his alma mater, The Citadel, with a parade and memorial service.
Second Lt. Therrel Childers, 30, whose parents live in Powell, died March 21 after being shot in the abdomen in an assault on a pumping station in Iraq. He was the first American casualty in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Childers’ father, Joe, and brother, Sam, attended a memorial service at the South Carolina university in late October, at which the Citadel Chorale sang and a list of Citadel alumni who died in the past year was read.
The two also attended a parade honoring Shane’s memory and met several Marines who attended class with him. Childers went to The Citadel as part of the Marine Enlisted Continuing Education Program.
“He’s still spoken of,” the elder Childers said. “He made an impression. It was good to be there and good to spend time with them.”
The Childers also presented the university’s president with a check from the Shane Childers Memorial Fund, which they donated to the school’s Shane Childers Scholarship Fund.
“That’s what we decided to do with the money,” Joe Childers said.
2nd Lt. Therrel Shane Childers was described as a born leader, serious and focused, who built his life around being a Marine.
“His idea of fun was skiing, backpacking, anything to keep in shape for the Marines,” said Army Sgt. Richard Brown, Childers’ brother-in-law.
Childers grew up in a military family primarily in Harrison County, Miss., and enlisted after high school. He served in the 1991 Gulf War, and in 2001 he completed the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program at The Citadel.
Retired Master Sgt. Steve Whitten said his wife often ribbed Childers about being single. “He had plenty of girls after him,” Whitten said, but “Shane was married to the Marine Corps.”
— Associated Press