Marine Lance Cpl. Bob W. Roberts

Died May 17, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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30, of Newport, Ore.; assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed May 17 by hostile fire near Fallujah, Iraq.

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Oregon Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Marine from Oregon was killed by hostile fire in Iraq, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

Lance Cpl. Bob W. Roberts, 30, of Newport, died Monday in Al Anbar province.

He was assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Roberts is the 19th service member with strong Oregon ties killed in the Iraq war.

Roberts’ mother, who would not give her first name, told KATU-TV that her son graduated from Portland’s Madison High School in 1992.

She said her son, the second youngest of five children, called late last week. She said that even though he had two years left in the Marines, he told her that he may re-enlist.

“He was the adventurous one of the family,” she said.

Roberts worked as a plumber in Newport before joining the Marines after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

“It’s sad what happened,” Newport Mayor Mark Jones said Tuesday night. “The community is pretty tight, and we’re really saddened by the loss of any of our sons and daughters.”

Roberts was among more than 125 people from the Newport area serving in Iraq, Jones said.

Just on Monday, the city council accepted a flag flown in an Air Force jet over Iraq as a gift from the father-in-law of a pilot serving in the region, Jones said.

“We have a lot of kids in and out of there and we worry,” Jones said.

A memorial service has not been scheduled, but the family said Roberts will be buried at Willamette National Cemetery.