Marine Cpl. John H. Todd III

Died June 29, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

24, of Bridgeport, Pa.; assigned to the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, Marine Corps Reserve, Folsom, Pa.; killed June 29 when a roadside bomb exploded next to his Humvee as he and four other Marines were traveling southeast of Baghdad.

---

Pennsylvania Marine reservist among three killed in Iraq

By Dan Robrish

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — A Marine reservist from suburban Philadelphia who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq had phoned his wife the night before he was killed, his aunt said.

“I know he told her he loved her,” Kay Shinners said Wednesday about her nephew, Cpl. John Todd III, 25, of Bridgeport, Pa., who was killed Tuesday along with Sgt. Alan D. Sherman, of Wanamassa, N.J., and Lance Cpl. Patrick Adle, 21, of Bel Air, Md.

“John was proud of the job he was doing over there,” Shinners said. “He was an excellent Marine, an excellent human being, and he will be missed.”

Todd, who loaded trucks for a window company and operated his own sign-painting business as a sideline, had joined his Marine Corps reserve unit four years ago, said Shinners, who was acting as the family’s spokeswoman.

“He just wanted to be a Marine,” Shinners said, adding that he showed no strong emotion about being called up in January for his second deployment and sent to Iraq. “He was going over to do what he needed to do — his job,” she said.

Funeral arrangements had not been made as of Wednesday night, she said.

In addition to the three who were killed, two other Marines were wounded in Tuesday morning’s attack in eastern Baghdad, the first assault on U.S. forces after the transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. The convoy was rolling along a four-lane highway when the device exploded.

All were members of Bridge Company B of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, a unit based in Folsom, Pa., that was on its second deployment in Iraq.