Marine Cpl. Barton R. Humlhanz

Died August 26, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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23, of Hellertown, Pa.; assigned to Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 24, 24th MEU, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed Aug. 26 by enemy action in Babil province, Iraq.

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Pennsylvania Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

HELLERTOWN, Pa. — A Marine from Northampton County who was killed in Iraq when his convoy came under attack had long wanted to be in the military, enlisting before he graduated high school, neighbors and school officials said.

Cpl. Barton R. Humlhanz, 23, of Hellertown, died Thursday from injuries due to enemy action in Iraq’s Babil province, military officials said. He was assigned to a Marine unit based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

“He was a normal kid. Just another American kid who really doesn’t know what’s going on and gets killed,” Hellertown neighbor Tony Casciano told The Express-Times of Easton for Saturday’s editions.

Humlhanz was a 2001 graduate of Saucon Valley High School, Principal Curtis Dietrich said.

He was “very interested in service to our country,” Dietrich said, describing him as “very patriotic.”

Humlhanz enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2000, before he graduated, and wore his military uniform to commencement. He was voted “most unique” by his graduating class, Dietrich said, and is pictured in the yearbook wearing an Army baseball cap.

“He didn’t know what he wanted to do with himself, so he enlisted. Unfortunately, it was a bad time,” Casciano said. “He just said he liked the military way of life. It was structured and it made him a man.”

Phone messages left at his family’s home were not returned.